A Year of Smiles – Day 304

Reason to SMILE #304: THE INFINITE KNOWLEDGE OF PRETEENS

I was taking a friend of my younger son home. It was late. The sky was hazy but the moonlight was still brilliant. My son was laid back in the front seat while his friend sat in the back. Both were silent – so silent I thought they had fallen asleep until…

Suddenly, one spoke up, “It’s a full moon!”

The other replied, “Why do we even have to know the phases of the moon? We don’t need that information.”

“I know. We have to know all kinds of things that we’ll never use!” said the first in agreement.

“Yeah. Like decimals,” the second said smugly. “When are we ever going to use decimals?”

At first, I was chuckling softly to myself but at this point, I was laughing out loud! Decimals. Let’s see. Balancing a checkbook, purchasing gas, purchasing anything, handling money, measuring, reading your car odometer, money. Did I mention money?

I futilely offered several uses to these two know-it-alls. They had an argument for everything. Finally, I quit trying. 

One day, boys. One day. You’ll be needing those decimals but don’t come seeking help from. If you do, I’m afraid the only thing I’ll do is refer you back to this blog post and SMILE. 😉

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A Year of Smiles – Day 132

Reason to SMILE #132: MOM MOMENTS

Mountain Dew® – I found it on the grocery list this week.

“Who asked for Mountain Dew?” I wondered but I had a feeling I already knew.

It was my younger son, my middle schooler.  This is the child who up until last year would not touch soda of any kind and here he was asking for Mountain Dew, the worst soda of all!  (Of course, that’s just my opinion.  I apologize to those of you who love the stuff.)

I took my grocery list to the store and checked off every item – except Mountain Dew.  I was not going to be an enabler of his bad habits!  After helping me carry the groceries into the house, my son looked around the kitchen.

“Did you get Mountain Dew?” he inquired.

“No,” I answered.  “You don’t need it.”

“But it helps me wake up in the mornings,” he whined as he was trying to establish a true “need” for the drink.

“First of all, you need to go to sleep earlier,” I began my retort.  “Secondly, you can just drink some of my coffee if you really can’t wake up.”

Of course, my only reason for suggesting coffee was my certainty that he would turn up his nose at the idea.  But seconds after I proposed the alternative, I panicked.  What if he takes me up on this deal?  Here I am being an enabler. What am I thinking?  Quickly, I added a restriction to my offer.

“You can only have a couple of swallows of the coffee, though, because too much will stunt your growth.”  Whew!  Nice save, mom.  I’m sure that will scare him.

His response, however, did not reinforce my belief that I had successfully conquered this parenting moment.  In fact, as I heard him quip the following question, I was reminded of another bad habit that I have been enabling all of his life:

“Is that what happened to you?”

You little smart aleck!

I just love these moments! (Yep, there’s that sarcasm my son learned so well!)  But no matter if these parenting moments are considered a success or an utter failure, there’s nothing that compares to being a mom.  As far as I’m concerned, if the only bad habit my kid learns from me is being a smart aleck, well, I’m doing pretty good… I think.

Mom moments – good or bad – are hands down the most gratifying SMILES of all!

 

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