Outvoted
Sometimes a mom realizes she is being outvoted. This happens at the age when the kids are taller than she is. Their voices are deeper. They sprawl about the kitchen like overgrown vines. They are still in the nest, but not under her wing. They give eye contact when she talks, but their ears are tuned to a different channel.
It happened to my Mom. It was funny. Then.
Mom would make motherly suggestion, and we would look at each other, take a silent vote, and the majority (us, not her) ruled. For instance, she would broach the subject of what everyone was going to spend on each other for Christmas. We would hear her voice, but were tuned to "Let's Mock Mother" channel.
Mom was outvoted. "The budget for Christmas this year? For everyone else, it's 20$ , but my present could be anywhere upwards of 500$. " Ha. Ha. Ha. We were sooooo funny. And if there were other siblings present, we would have a contest to see who could carry the joke the farthest. "Oh, yah, 500$, and you should see the size of the stocking I want you to fill." On and on.
Mom always rose to the occasion. She tried to make us be serious. "No, really, I'd like to know what the budget is. Everyone needs to be aware and agreeable." Then we would carry on and on about "Budget smudget. Blow the wad. Whadddya say, whaddya say." The more she protested, the more fun we had, mocking her desire to carry out a sensible conversation.
She never really learned. She took the bait. We kids had many hours of playful entertainment at her expense. Sometimes if she was really desperate, she would utter a plaintive "Roy, help me". This was a desperate appeal to my Dad to come to her rescue against these kids who were too big to wallop.
Well, for me, as the mom of more grown-than-not kids, the expression, "What goes around, comes around", has proved to be more than true.
For many years, I got the kids Advent calendars. Chocolate ones. They didn't have good chocolate in them, but the kids didn't know the difference. Yet. The deal was they would memorize a Scripture verse a day through the Advent season with the idea that by the time the 25 days were up, they'd have 25 verses under their belt. The chocolate was their reward. If they didn't memorize, they'd get no chocolate.
Until this year, it worked very well. Various passages of were memorized. The Christmas story in Matthew and Luke, the Fruit of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 13, to name a few. When I brought the Advent calendars home this year, they all ganged up on me.
My daughter broke into the chocolate without a thought. When I chided her, she said "I did memorize a verse - 'Jesus wept'." and carried on eating.
My #2 son ate all the chocolates in his calendar when I was out for 8 minutes on an errand, and then said, "Well, just consider me owing you 24 verses. " He then tried quoting verses he'd memorized other years. I rose to the occasion. I told him the rule was they verses had to be new verses, not re-runs. So he disappeared into his bedroom for a quarter of an hour, and then came out and quoted "And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name." from Revelation 13. I'm sure this verse will be instrumental in settting his moral compass in the right direction.
My #2 son, who usually is more compliant than the others, tried to outwit me by quoting Galatians 5: 22 and 23. Only instead of "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.", he made up his own version "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, thoughtfulness, and self respect....".
I lay down my weapons. I let out a plaintive "Roy, help me.", and retreated to my bedroom. Then I ate all the good chocolate, which I had been thinking about giving them for the Advent season, until they ambushed me.
Mom was outvoted. "The budget for Christmas this year? For everyone else, it's 20$ , but my present could be anywhere upwards of 500$. " Ha. Ha. Ha. We were sooooo funny. And if there were other siblings present, we would have a contest to see who could carry the joke the farthest. "Oh, yah, 500$, and you should see the size of the stocking I want you to fill." On and on.
Mom always rose to the occasion. She tried to make us be serious. "No, really, I'd like to know what the budget is. Everyone needs to be aware and agreeable." Then we would carry on and on about "Budget smudget. Blow the wad. Whadddya say, whaddya say." The more she protested, the more fun we had, mocking her desire to carry out a sensible conversation.
She never really learned. She took the bait. We kids had many hours of playful entertainment at her expense. Sometimes if she was really desperate, she would utter a plaintive "Roy, help me". This was a desperate appeal to my Dad to come to her rescue against these kids who were too big to wallop.
Well, for me, as the mom of more grown-than-not kids, the expression, "What goes around, comes around", has proved to be more than true.
For many years, I got the kids Advent calendars. Chocolate ones. They didn't have good chocolate in them, but the kids didn't know the difference. Yet. The deal was they would memorize a Scripture verse a day through the Advent season with the idea that by the time the 25 days were up, they'd have 25 verses under their belt. The chocolate was their reward. If they didn't memorize, they'd get no chocolate.
Until this year, it worked very well. Various passages of were memorized. The Christmas story in Matthew and Luke, the Fruit of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 13, to name a few. When I brought the Advent calendars home this year, they all ganged up on me.
My daughter broke into the chocolate without a thought. When I chided her, she said "I did memorize a verse - 'Jesus wept'." and carried on eating.
My #2 son ate all the chocolates in his calendar when I was out for 8 minutes on an errand, and then said, "Well, just consider me owing you 24 verses. " He then tried quoting verses he'd memorized other years. I rose to the occasion. I told him the rule was they verses had to be new verses, not re-runs. So he disappeared into his bedroom for a quarter of an hour, and then came out and quoted "And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name." from Revelation 13. I'm sure this verse will be instrumental in settting his moral compass in the right direction.
My #2 son, who usually is more compliant than the others, tried to outwit me by quoting Galatians 5: 22 and 23. Only instead of "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.", he made up his own version "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, thoughtfulness, and self respect....".
I lay down my weapons. I let out a plaintive "Roy, help me.", and retreated to my bedroom. Then I ate all the good chocolate, which I had been thinking about giving them for the Advent season, until they ambushed me.
Comments