"The front door opens and in comes her 6-year-old son, Terry, home from school, who starts batting around a blue balloon at the other end of the living room, batting it closer to her, closer, closer. She searches through her iTunes library until she finds one of her favorite downloads -- not music, but a speech by a character named Howard Beale in the movie "Network." She presses "play" and turns up the volume. "I want you to get mad!" Beale shouts at one point. "I want you to get mad!" she shouts along, startling Terry. "What?" he says, backing away with his balloon."
The poor kid's growing up in a nuthouse.
Exactly how first-graders want to be greeted by the mother that they have been separated from for a whole day! I think her action must have irritated this writer enough that he included this vignette in his story