Sunday, March 2, 2008

Sometimes the things we do come back to bite us in the proverbial derriere...

I raised two very resourceful children and I just feel so proud of them both.


The DU called from sunny southern California today to see how things are going with us, what we were doing and also to say how excited she is that we're coming to visit.

"We're just slugging since I still can't play golf due to the Torture Track mishap. What are you up to?" I asked.

"Just finished a soccer game & now I'm chilling" said she. "What did you guys do last night?"

"Oh, Puhleease! As if you have to ask. Dad fixed dinner & was in bed at 8:30 p.m., as usual. I stayed up until 2:00 in the morning, as usual. No new surprises here. What did you do?"

"Well, my roommate & I are both broke after buying new furniture for our new apartment."

"Soooo... you didn't go out then?" I asked. Which would REALLY be something new.

"Well, actually we did go out but had to spend some time coming up with a feasible plan for getting free drinks, since we're both broke. So, the first bar we went to we pretended it was my 21st birthday. Everyone was so nice & bought us all our drinks" she answers.

"Oh, that's nice... WAIT A MINUTE! You did WHAT?" I ask with a bit too much shrill in my voice.

"The first bar we went to we pretended it was my birthday so MC went around telling everyone it was my 21st birthday, and everyone was buying us drinks. Then, the next club we went to it was MC's turn to be the happy birthday girl and we got the same reaction from the other clubbers. We never paid for a thing. It was a great night!"

So I'm thinking to myself Hmmm...

"And you're proud of this, are you?" I ask.

"Hell Yeah!" she replies. "I had a great teacher, MOM."

"I have no idea what you mean by that remark" says I, rather haughtily.

"Oh pleease, like you don't know what I'm talking about" she says accusingly.

"Remember the last time we went skiing together and you lost your cash when you wiped out?" she asked.

"I'm not sure I do. Enlighten me, please" I say.

"As I recall we had lobster dinners & drinks with some people you met in the bar and told them it was your 40th birthday and that your husband refused to come with you so you brought your daughter who had recently turned 21. Remember that?" she asked.

"Vaguely" I lied. We'd had a blast that night. We were just a mother & her daughter enjoying a little evening of larceny together as a family, I think to myself. Aaaaargh!

"Right Mom, okay... whatever" she said with a tone in her voice that definitely smacked of sarcasm. (Where could she have ever learned that? Really, it's a mystery.)

"Oh yeah! We did wind up having fun that night didn't we?" I admitted with reluctance. "I'm not sure that I exactly meant for you to mirror my behavior that evening" I claimed. "It was rather an emergency, you know" I argued.

"Get over it Mom. You raised me to be a resourceful girl, just like you. You should be proud" she claims.


Oh yeah, I'm so proud I'm just busting out all over in goose bumps with the sheer delight of my pride. Not.

She must have learned this kind of behavior at the University of Texas... part of her degree. Yeah, that's it... it was part of her degree apparently, see? She never, never ever saw this sort of thing at home. It must have been school.



The moral to this conversation is: No matter what age your children are, you still have to be careful of what you do & say... Because THEY WILL COPY YOUR BEHAVIOR, at any age, unfortunately. Oyyyyyyyyy...

2 comments:

brneyedgal967 said...

LMAO! Heck yeah they copy us and rightly so! Someone's gotta teach them.

I cut in line the other day getting into a parking garage with my children looking on, astonished "You just cut that guy off!" I commented, "Hey, you snooze you lose, bucko." Then I explained that I spent years, YEARS doing everything the correct way, completely above the boards, no indiscretion, I could've been audited by the IRS daily and gotten a blue ribbon -- but that never got me anywhere. And it's a helluva lot more fun making up your own rules.

So Kudos to You!

so tired said...

Oh crap. I'm in big trouble!

 

Blog Designed by: NW Designs