Trying to remember--was that the name of a monthly section in Reader's Digest? I think it was usually some kind of mini-disaster with an act of heroism to save the day.
Here, straight from the Dudley household is the morning's unfolding drama:
Son: [stomping downstairs and around the house] Where's my library book???!!!!
Mom: I don't know. Did you put it in your backpack?
S: NO!!!!! [now flinging things about as he looks]
Mom: [helps look] Did you turn it in ahead of time? Did you take it upstairs to read? Did your sister read it?
S: NO!! No no no! [stomping. Finds it under a pile of his own papers and sheepishly puts it in his backpack.] [Then, when all seems well, he starts tearing around again.] I didn't do my reading homework!!!!!
M: Well, write it down now.
S: But I need to read an hour!!!!
M: Why don't you write down the reading you did this weekend, then?
S: But that was for last week!
M: No, it was the weekend, so you can write it down for this week.
S: [to whom everything is black and white] No, that's LYING!!!!!
[Mom struggles a few more minutes to persuade him. He finally writes down the comic books he read over the weekend, and sits down to eat, all the while making grumping, whining noises. A few moments later, he hurls the milk container lid across the kitchen in frustration.]
Stay tuned until next week. Will the son overcome his low blood sugar and get his act together, or will his mother wring his neck before this can happen? You'll only know if I don't show up on your evening news...
Ah... it reminds me of he "good old days" when my chillens were young...Before you know where the time went, it will be your daughter-in-law's problem. Start praying for her now!
ReplyDeleteRemember, if you don't resist the temptation, there will be a gosh-awful photo of you on the front page of the newspaper. At least you don't have to worry that the neighbors will say, "She was always the quiet type and kept to herslf." It is difficult for us grown-ups to remember that everything our children go through can be of life or death importance to them right now even if we who have more perspective can see that these things are truly not crises and that one is likely to survive these mini-tempests.
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