My ex and I had a sit down talk with our 11-year old son yesterday night. Nothing major, just some needed adjustment to his attitude toward his sister. Anyway, it got me to thinking late last night how much better behaved my son is in comparison to when I was his age. I cant believe some of the stuff I did! Do you ever sit back and think to yourself "My God, what were my parents thinking??!!" or "Thank God my kids dont do what I did when I was their age!" Between the BB guns, dirt bikes and firecrackers Im surprised that I made it to adulthood. There was one particular infraction that came to mind last night..
I was close to the same age my son is right now (many, MANY years ago) and I recall it was during summer vacation. My mother had just left the house with my little sister. So here is my little brother and I, home alone. We get hungry and decide to make some french fries. We pull out the ol deep frying pan and pour in some oil and start cooking some yummy fries. "Ding Dong" someones at the front door. Ah, a group of my buddies stop by and see if we can come out and play baseball. Sure, of course we can, were home alone! Yeah! "Lets see, what do I needmy bat, glove and ball." Hmmm.what am I forgetting???? Hmmm..OH YEAH! I need my cap! And off my brother and I go.
After playing baseball for a few hours we decide to go home and get something to eat and drink. Heck, lets invite everyone over. As we get closer to the house someone peeks through the windows and shouts "Hey, Mike why does it look fogging in your house?" OH SHI*!!!! I left the stove on! The whole house is filled with smoke and black soot! Mom and dad are going to KILL me!!! What can I do?? I got it!!! Paint the inside of the house!!! So we open the windows, let the smoke out, go out to the garage and proceed to bring in a half dozen paint brushes and pails of paint inside. Picture a dozen 12 & 13 year old kids painting the kitchen, living and dining room with god-only-knows type of paint.
Then the dreaded announcement "Stein! Your mom is pulling into the driveway!!" And we werent even half done (besides the fact it looked like kids painted the house. Duh!) She walks inall of us are silentstanding there.with brushes in hand. She has this stunned look on her face.her mouth drops open and she says "Oh my god, I forgot to turn the stove off! And you kids were trying to clean up the mess. I love you boys!" I thought to myself "YES! THANK YOU GOD!!!!!" And for many years it was a secret that my buddies and brother kept from my parents.
So each time my son misbehaves, I just think back to this experience and am thankful that he doesnt like deep fried fries. J