“When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he’s doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911. ”
May was the dry month with barely any rain. June, though still young, is the cold month. The temperature has dipped to the 40’s at night and only the 50’s during the day. Sunday is predicted to have a high of 70˚. I can hardly wait. I’m thinking a book, some crackers and cheese, a cold drink and my deck.
Eat your vegetables. Sit up straight. Wash your hands. Wipe your feet. Take your coat off the chair and hang it in the closet. Put your schoolbag away. Change into play clothes. Brush your teeth. Do your homework. Don’t sit so close to the TV or you’ll go blind. Leave your sisters alone. Don’t slam the door. Go outside and play. Don’t stand looking with the refrigerator door open. No cookies before dinner. Get your feet off the table. Get ready for bed.
When I was a kid, life was an endless chain of commands. My mother said the same things every day, and most days she’d tempt us by asking, “How many times to I have to tell you?” I really wanted to answer her but I never did. I was learning discretion, and I also knew I’d have been sent to my room until at least college. The truth was I just didn’t hear her. It was blah, blah, blah to me. Every kid figures out at an early age how to ignore parents, especially those repetitive commands which blur together and lose meaning. We’d move back from the TV then move right back to where we were as soon as my mother left the room. The back door always slammed. What self-respecting kid is going to stand there and close it gently? Little sisters were to be picked on. It was a universal rule. If I didn’t stand looking into the refrigerator, how would I know what was there? What kid ever wants to get ready for bed? Vegetables? Clean hands?
My mother would yell, “Are you listening to me?” I’d nod or say yes despite having no idea what in the heck she’d said. I figured the truth, no, would have been the totally wrong answer. It would have made my mother madder, and I’d have been accused of being a smart aleck which wasn’t really far off the mark.
I learned early on shading the truth is sometimes the best response.
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June 4, 2015 at 12:58 pm
Public holiday, beautiful warm summer day, strawberries and ice cream. Life is good.
Bad news from Accra on our radio this morning, a gas station exploded and houses caught fire, 100 or more dead.
June 4, 2015 at 1:06 pm
Birgit,
Warmer than this morning now. I have company coming for dinner so I’ve been busy.
I saw the pictures from a Ghanaian news agency. There was flooding and many people were in the gas station to avoid the water. Gas in the flooded water somehow became lit and then the flame leapt to the gas station.
June 4, 2015 at 2:05 pm
Hi Kat,
Well, we were telling the truth when we nodded yes to the question about listening. Our eardrums were vibrating but our brains weren’t picking up the line.
Your post reminded me of Charlie Brown listening to his teacher and all he can hear is Wah wah wah wah wah waaah.
This morning I mowed the new grass behind the house while the lawn guy was mowing the rest. We had a nice chat about lawn mowers ripping up the sod which confirmed what I had suspected about their new mower. They had to buy wider tires for it because it was destroying people’s lawns.
Today is an odd day. The Weather Widget says it’s 60 and sunny. Well, maybe. It’s probably 60. There is a sun up there that pokes out from behind the fractured clouds. There is some blue sky but it’s still pretty dull over all.
Enjoy the day.
June 4, 2015 at 3:15 pm
Hi Caryn,
I figured we knew the drill of what my mother would say at most given moments. We had heard it all before, probably the day before.
My lawn was more the other day too. The rain has made it look a bit cushy, greener. Today I did water my outside plants.
We have a lot of sun, but it feels cold to me. I just closed the window on this floor as I can fill the chill. I guess tonight will be cold again. I have company coming for dinner, and it appears we won’t be eating outside.
Have a great rest of the day!
June 4, 2015 at 2:20 pm
May was 1 degree colder than normal in average and we got 200% more rain than usual, in the entire country. Some even got 300% more. I guess I’m lucky to get only the 200% 🙂 Today was really nice though, almost warm I would say 🙂
No was never the right answer 🙂 🙂 I ate anything since I actually ate my mother’s food 🙂 The only thing I refused eating again was fish pudding! That is the absolute most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten. To her defence I must say she bought it ready made, if I had thought she had made it I would have gone to my best friend and had dinner there 🙂
I can’t remember what vegetables we had, most likely grated carrots, peas and corn. We actually ate lots of corns in my family long before it got popular here. I think my mother had it when we were in England (I was only one year old so I don’t remember it) and anything the Englishmen liked she liked 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 4, 2015 at 3:19 pm
Christer,
June is averaging 14 or 15 degrees colder. We had almost no rain in May, way below the average. It has been a strange spring so far.
I haven’t ever heard of fish pudding, and by the sounds of it, I wouldn’t have eaten it either. My mother wouldn’t have served it knowing we wouldn’t eat it though we were fish eaters.
I always loved corn when I was a kid. My least favorite was cream corn but I did like that too. Summer corn, the August corn, was my favorite of all-sweet and tasty. Now I have a lot of corn on the cob-it just goes with summer.
Have a great evening!
June 4, 2015 at 5:03 pm
Great news in our home tonight. My youngest son has won a place at teachers’ training college from September. As a Scot I grew up knowing that the 3 jobs Scots’ families aspired to were: doctor, engineer and teacher. I am proud. We taught him all we could yet he, in turn, has taught us so much…despite our commands!
June 4, 2015 at 5:17 pm
Congrats to your son and to his proud father! I suspect that he learned far more from those commands than you realize. I know I wouldn’t have admitted it to my parents, but they taught me so much as I was growing up.
I was the first in my family to go to college. My parents always encouraged me. For that I am ever thankful.
June 4, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Yesterday the official temperature reached 90 degrees for the first time this year. Usually our first 90 degree day occurs on April 16th. All the clouds and rain kept the temperature down.
Your mother and mine must have matriculated in the school of motherhood. Yelling was par for the course and repeating the same things over and over again was the norm to try to get us to listen. Southern mothers substituted ‘minding’ for listening’. My kids do and did exactly the things that you listed. How did they learn those behaviors? Somehow, we all grew up to become usefull productive adults in spite of our mother’s yelling.
June 4, 2015 at 11:26 pm
Bob,
Yikes, 90˚ is just too hot for June. Granted, 53˚ is too cold but I prefer cold to hot.
I think our mothers worked hard at trying to get us to listen and do what they asked. I did when she were looking but didn’t if I could get away with it.
I think mothers had to take the same class before they had kids.