Nothing irks me more than hearing my kids say something like: “where are you going?”, “are you going out dressed like that?”, “where have you been?” “When will you be back?”, “Don’t forget to put gas in the car”, “remember to take your pills”, etc.
It seems I’ve heard all those phrases before: perhaps I said every one of them while they were growing up, and now they’re using them on me. Not fair, as I was the one who taught them.
I still have all my faculties, I think. Although sometimes I confuse myself by repeating some of the steps it takes to clean the kitchen, do the laundry or take care of the weeds. I wake up in the middle of the night and traipse around the house to make sure I’ve closed the outside door or put the clothes in the dryer. And sometimes, I even forget to do that.
I have organized my days to complete the household chores according to the day of the week: Mondays I sew, Tuesdays I balance the checkbook, Wednesdays I do laundry, Thursdays I iron the clothes left inside the dryer for too long, Fridays I change the linens and do more laundry and Saturdays and Sundays I do the rest of the weeding and lawn chores.
However, in between all my chores, Grumpy always throws a wrench on my day. He has his own itinerary and tramples all over my days without a thought in his mind. Either he needs to go to cardiac rehab, or shopping, or looking for some unnecessary item to complete one of his projects, which, by the way, never gets finished; or perhaps, just wants to get out of the house and he can’t do it without interrupting my day. Since it’s my fault he is so spoiled, I comply.
Back to the kids: just because they are all successful, doesn’t mean they can teach me anything. After all, where was I when they were growing up? Right next to them, guiding them, teaching them, scolding them, righting them when they fell, and loving them when they needed it. I was there with them at all times, along with Grumpy.
They have great ideas when it comes to organizing a budget, buying insurance, health care, investing, and even cooking! It’s like I’ve never done any of those things all by myself! How do they think I got this old? By making mistakes, by being foolish, by being dumb? No, by being smart, and having wonderful kids who take the time to make sure I’ve got all my faculties still with me and taking care of reminding me to take care of myself.
I love them all, but, get off! I think I know what I’m doing. I just need a reminder once in a while.
