First another one of those moments.... AAAAAUGHGHHGHHHGHHG! I had to get thta out of my system. So, I'm trying to teach my son to keep an agenda, but he saw it as a totally pointless exercise for the summer. He argued and argued that he should just be able to use the dry erase message board that I have on the fridge for his "agenda". I finally agreed - because he doesn't have that much going on and he's not carrying a backpack.
Now that that was settled, I said to him, "O.k. So, write your schedule there."
He said, "What?"
Me, "L, write the things that you have to do - the things you'd put in an agenda..."
When I hear him muttering, "swim, run..." and I realize that he's not going along with me, I just walk out of the kitchen (which prompted him to add two "real" entries to his list before he went to bed).
BELOW see his agenda/schedule which I will have to type here before this masterpiece of organizational effort is lost forever...:
*swim a lot
*and run a lot
*eat, poop, sleep,
*captain's practice Wed. 7pm
*get physical mom
OK - now you say... "My hero?" Why did you name this post My Hero? Well, the trash... It hadn't gone out on Monday July 4th - and by the time trash day rolled around again, it was pretty rank. (Sorry, Mr. trash collectors). So, when we got back from swimming and saw the empty trash cans outside, my son noticed that one of them was full of bugs. To make a long story short - when he saw that I was not really dealing with them very well... (that is, my strategy was to leave the trash can on its side by the curb in the street and pray for the bugs to crawl away) he took over and took the trash can to wash it out under our outside faucet. My little boy ... doing a man's work.
ha ha
When my kids were little I tried desperately to NEVER let them see what a coward I was about bugs, and I did a pretty good job - although no WAY could I fool people about roaches... There's still a story about how I tried to look casual when a roach ran by my son's bed (Central Anmerican tropical roaches)... why humiliate myself by writing it all down? It involves the squeak of my voice - poor aim with the shoe - and nobody is fooled.
Anyway, now I no longer have to pretend. My Hero...
10 July 2011
06 July 2011
Independence
On July 4th, my son and I had a conversation that went kind of like this:
Me: Why is this fan missing its cover? (As I pick up a 3 speed, white plastic fan, about 18 inches tall. Fan is lying on side on floor and it is running.) If we can’t get the cover back on this fan, you can’t have it in your room.
Him: (Tone is sarcastic, but not exaggerated) Oh, yeah, I wouldn’t want to get injured by this flimsy plastic.
He wants to touch the spinning blade to prove how silly I am, but I see the tiny hesitation in him. I set the fan down, while I find the cover on his floor. Now, my son sticks his toe on the running fan blades for a couple of seconds and nothing happens to him - just that strange noise of the spinning blades hitting calloused big toe.
Me: Sorry. (My tone is no nonsense, stern, dictatorial - depending on your perspective) If we can’t get the cover back on this fan, you can’t have it in your room.
Him: (Repeats the following a few times). Describe one specific scenario where that fan could hurt me. Seriously. What could happen? I guarantee you 100% that this fan will not do anything.
Me: You cannot guarantee this 100%...
Him: Well, can you guarantee that my bunk beds won’t injure me?
Me: That’s why I wouldn’t let you sleep on them if they were damaged.
Him: Can you guarantee me that this bookshelf won’t fall? (He asks this of several other items).
We haven't been able to reattach the cover while holding the fan in the air, so I take it out of his room and set it on the kitchen table so that I can clean off the dirt and try to replace the cover. He thinks I’m taking it away, and is appalled that I’m really doing this until I explain that I'm still trying to fix it. Nevertheless, he continues his challenge even though we don't know if I'll actually take it away yet.
Him: Can you think of one scenario in which I could possibly get hurt by this fan?
Me: (no answer)
Him: It’s quiet, it works well.. Seriously, describe how this fan could hurt me if it doesn’t have a cover.
Me: Can I record this conversation?
Him: Name one scenario... (I won't bother to finish this line, but he did.... Then I think I repeated by question about recording the conversation, and I was tempted to do it. So he repeated his demand for a specific scenario of gore caused by this cheapo fan. . . )
Me: L, have you ever heard of picking your battles? Is it really worth fighting for the right to keep this fan in your room before you even know the outcome?
I can’t remember how it finally ended –
I explained “picking your battles” and that got at least a wee bit of attention from him.
I really couldn’t think of any specific “scenario” while my son was badgering me for one... I mean, I toyed with the idea of saying the cats might be injured -- HA HA. I chuckle every time I think of it. L would have lavished scorn on any "kitty" scenario. Fortunately, I wasn’t desperate to win that point.
When the conversation ended, I really could see a scenario... but by then I knew that, if I were so foolish as to say one word about it, I would be responsible for opening up this dead-end in human communication.
I got the fan cleaned up and put the cover back on. By then he was playing a video game, but I told him I was putting it back into his room only for as long as the cover stayed on.
Me: Why is this fan missing its cover? (As I pick up a 3 speed, white plastic fan, about 18 inches tall. Fan is lying on side on floor and it is running.) If we can’t get the cover back on this fan, you can’t have it in your room.
Him: (Tone is sarcastic, but not exaggerated) Oh, yeah, I wouldn’t want to get injured by this flimsy plastic.
He wants to touch the spinning blade to prove how silly I am, but I see the tiny hesitation in him. I set the fan down, while I find the cover on his floor. Now, my son sticks his toe on the running fan blades for a couple of seconds and nothing happens to him - just that strange noise of the spinning blades hitting calloused big toe.
Me: Sorry. (My tone is no nonsense, stern, dictatorial - depending on your perspective) If we can’t get the cover back on this fan, you can’t have it in your room.
Him: (Repeats the following a few times). Describe one specific scenario where that fan could hurt me. Seriously. What could happen? I guarantee you 100% that this fan will not do anything.
Me: You cannot guarantee this 100%...
Him: Well, can you guarantee that my bunk beds won’t injure me?
Me: That’s why I wouldn’t let you sleep on them if they were damaged.
Him: Can you guarantee me that this bookshelf won’t fall? (He asks this of several other items).
We haven't been able to reattach the cover while holding the fan in the air, so I take it out of his room and set it on the kitchen table so that I can clean off the dirt and try to replace the cover. He thinks I’m taking it away, and is appalled that I’m really doing this until I explain that I'm still trying to fix it. Nevertheless, he continues his challenge even though we don't know if I'll actually take it away yet.
Him: Can you think of one scenario in which I could possibly get hurt by this fan?
Me: (no answer)
Him: It’s quiet, it works well.. Seriously, describe how this fan could hurt me if it doesn’t have a cover.
Me: Can I record this conversation?
Him: Name one scenario... (I won't bother to finish this line, but he did.... Then I think I repeated by question about recording the conversation, and I was tempted to do it. So he repeated his demand for a specific scenario of gore caused by this cheapo fan. . . )
Me: L, have you ever heard of picking your battles? Is it really worth fighting for the right to keep this fan in your room before you even know the outcome?
I can’t remember how it finally ended –
I explained “picking your battles” and that got at least a wee bit of attention from him.
I really couldn’t think of any specific “scenario” while my son was badgering me for one... I mean, I toyed with the idea of saying the cats might be injured -- HA HA. I chuckle every time I think of it. L would have lavished scorn on any "kitty" scenario. Fortunately, I wasn’t desperate to win that point.
When the conversation ended, I really could see a scenario... but by then I knew that, if I were so foolish as to say one word about it, I would be responsible for opening up this dead-end in human communication.
I got the fan cleaned up and put the cover back on. By then he was playing a video game, but I told him I was putting it back into his room only for as long as the cover stayed on.
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