I can be such a duffus sometimes.  This morning was a classic example.  I don’t even know my own son.  How bad is that???   It went something like this …

Every Monday morning, our minister, our youth director, and I meet at 8:00 to go over our calendars, share concerns that we might have, and then a short devotional.  The phone rings, and we joke that it is probably David or Ethan.  The minister tells him that his mom has flown north — that she went to Alaska.  We all laughed, and then I got up and answered the distressed child’s call. 

Child: “Mom…can you go home and get my binder?”

Me: “Right now?  I’m in a meeting”

Child: “Well, as soon as you can.  I’m in class”.

Me: “*sigh. Ok.  Where is it?” 

Child:  “The kitchen counter, I think”.

Me:  “Ok, I’ll get it, but AFTER the meeting.  I’m not leaving now”.

Child: “Ok”.

Now granted … I remember thinking he sounded a little different, but I justified it in my head that he is just getting over a bronchitis and laryngitis.   But the real clue should have been “binder” …. “kitchen counter”.   Binder would imply that he actually brought the binder in and maybe actually did homework.    But, again, I justified it in my head that maybe he needed to get some papers out of it, and thats why he brought it in. 

Ok.  So I go back to the meeting.  We finish up.  The Youth Director leaves to go to “other job”, and the minister and I talk a little bit … and then I get up and tell him I’ll be back.  I have to go get a binder and take it to the school.

I get home.  I go to the kitchen.  No.  Binder.    I walk the house.  Still no. binder.

I call the school.   I refuse to leave a message.  I want to talk to Ethan.  And I wait for him to get on the phone.

Me:  “What am I suppose to get for you?”

Ethan:  “What?”

Me:  “Binder.  Remember?  You called me.  I. Need.  My.  Binder.”

Ethan: “Mom?  I didn’t call you”

By now, the lights are going off …  I hadn’t been talking to my child.  And now I’m worried, because some kid out there thinks his mom is going to be bringing up his binder, and the mom is going to be clueless, when he gets mad at her for not doing it. 

On the way back up to the church, I call David, just to give him the laugh for the day.  Being the brilliant man he is (I never claimed to be the brightest crayon in the box) — he put 2 and 2 together.  The child I probably talked to was the Youth Director’s son.  He’s in middle school, his voice has already changed to that bass sounding man voice, like Ethan’s.  And…when he called, he probably just asked for “Mom” … and our minister is so used to Ethan calling and asking for “Mom”.  I don’t feel quite so bad though — if our minister thought it was Ethan as well, then it wasn’t just totally me being a duffus.

By the time I had gotten back to the church, the Youth Director was on the phone with the minister — she had called to stop me from having to go home (too late) — her kid called and wanted to know when she was going to bring his binder.  I can only imagine the conversation there …  “you did not call me”.  “Yes, I did.  You were in a meeting with Gordon”.  The things he said, finally clicked that it was HIM who called and I talked to — and he thought he was talking to HIS mom.

What a hoot.  We aren’t going to forget this for some time to come.  I’m going to have to give Alex a hard time when I see him.