savedbygrace was right. Generally, if your wife gives a command, and the children ignore it, the proper response is to enforce the command, not laugh about it.
But that wouldn't make a very funny dialog, would it.
I'm not saying the dialog was contrived, just that there were other aspects to it that weren't necessary for the humor, and that would involve a serious discussion unrelated to the topic.
I didn't want though to leave the impression I was in disagreement with savedbygrace.
Ah, now I understand. Thank you.