Pass The Torch Tuesday
Posted by Prairierose on Sep 26, 2006Kelly believes in our youth and has started a new meme called “Pass the Torch”. The guidelines are simple: Catch ‘em being good — write about a kid/young person you witness doing something right (or smart, or helpful or responsible, etc.) Let me share with you, one time I caught Ethan “being good.
I was reading through some of my archives, and when I read this one, I thought it would be a good “Pass the Torch” entry. So, even though this was written almost a year ago, it still applies to life today….
**************************
After harvest and the hundreds of invoices it generated those few weeks, this Monday was a piece of cake doing the billing. For starters, we are back to normal loads — long haul, so instead of a few hundred “local” loads, the drivers are back to going to Texas and Oklahoma, and there are only 50 or so loads to bill. Plus, most of the drivers only drove 3 days last week. So. Piece of cake. I was even able to get some other things done while there, and that was nice in itself as well.
Just wish I could say yesterday was “a piece of cake”.
It. Wasn’t.
It was a game of “beat the clock” — several different times. It was newsletter day, and that always means having to watch the clock to make sure I am at the postoffice with them before 3:45. I really thought it would be a piece of cake, because when I left for lunch, everything was copied, insert was stuffed, and I had started folding and taping. Maybe I shouldn’t have left for lunch. Woudln’t have been so time crunched then.
As didn’t anticipate all the phone calls I got. Among them — my aunt called, to let me know she was going to the doctor. Which didn’t surprise me. She had an awful cough when we saw her the day before. The hospital called later to let me know they had admitted her. And then she called to let me know they had admitted her.
So. After getting off work at 3:45, we….
- Go to the bank to deposit paychecks
- Go to the post office to mail newsletters.
-Go to the nursing home to pick up things she needed for the hospital.
- Deliver them to her.
- Get supper at Dairy Queen for Ethan.
- Go back to nursing home to pick up Medicade card.
- Take Medicade card to hospital for them to make a copy of
- Go home, and wait for Harry to pick up Ethan. Harry had to make a couple of stops before Barbershop practice, so he was picking him up at 5:15 instead of 6:00.
- Argue with the above named child about “Yes. You ARE going.
He first started out that he couldn’t go because he had a cold, and the singing would “damage” his vocal cords. When that excuse didn’t fly, he pulled the “homework” card. Too bad he doesn’t have the determination to do his homework like that EVERY night. It was a matter of life and death if he didn’t get his homework done, and he just could not go to Barbershop.
Guess what. I made him go anyway.
But not before his hormones kicked in, and he got ticked, and sent a basket that I use as a pencil holder go flying. I. Was. Not. Impressed. He did that as he stomped out the door because Harry was waiting.
I spent the next several hours trying to determine what the consequences would be for his actions.
AND. There are still consequences. But, I am proud of him. When he got home, the first thing he did was come in and apologize. We talked about it — something came of it that made me feel even more proud of him. One. He said he prayed that God would take the anger away. Which God did. He said it also bothered him what he did — flying off the handle like that. “If I’m doing that now, what if I do that when I have kids? … Mom. I think I need “anger management help”. And maybe he does. But I was proud of him for recognizing that his actions were NOT appropriate, and that he came to his own conclusion, and not something that I had to convince him of.
Oh. These teenage years. They are not going to be pretty, I have a feeling. But…I do think we have some hope. For all the things I have screwed up in my life, his life … I still see a small seed of hope for him.
September 26th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Carolyn, this is really great. Yes, there are so many ways to be proud of our kids. It’s not always the way the behave initially, but the way they handle their screw-ups that shows they’re growing into excellent human beings.
I’m glad you dug this one out of archives. Thanks for joining us again for Pass the Torch Tuesday!
Kelly
October 2nd, 2006 at 6:17 am
[…] Other excellent Pass the Torch Tuesday Posts last month included: Mommy Life – Good News on a Paper Route Choices – Beanie Kids Are We There Yet – Patience A Prairie View – Apologizing Unexplored Territory – Gesture of Friendship Shades of Pink – Pride Roundup If Mama Ain’t Happy – Dealing with Grief Drama Queen’s Momma – Hero Almost Somewhat Positive – Growing Up But Wait, There’s More – Now I lay me down to sleep Filed In: Parenting 2 Responses to “September’s Perfect Post” […]