So, I was sitting in the car and glancing back at my youngest son. I see out of the corner of my eye that he is sticking his hand into an empty cup and grabbing ice and sucking on it, then.. to my horror.. spitting it on my floor! In my car! How could confuse it with a stable floor for Pete's sake! So, in my best admonishing voice, I tell him to stop and how disgusting that is.. and yada, yada, yada.. (because you know that all he really heard anyhow) and then turn back in my seat feeling very proud of how I handled it.
Then, because I am a woman and mother, therefore, suspicious, I glance back again. And yes, you have it.. his hand was in the cup. I do the death stare at him and he promptly pulls it out again. I turn back around, glance back-- he is doing it again. I give him the REALLY HARD death stare, and he pulls his hand out. I turn away, then back... and.. HIS HAND IS IN THE CUP AGAIN! But, this time.. he has a smile on his face and his eyes are narrowed to let me know-- he is enjoying this! I whip around to face front and realize.. to my horror...I have seen this before.
I flash back to the early part of my life. Pre kids, pre adult life.. just me and my sister in the grocery store with my parents. I can see my little sister pushing the cart and my dad saying to her... " don't' move the cart-- I will be right back" and going around the corner to grab something. (OK.. obviously I am old and this was back in a world where you could go around the corner of the grocery store and not worry of pedophiles or mass murders lying in lurk) .. anyhow.. there is my little sister.. waiting on my dad to turn the corner and .. she moved the cart. Just a small bit, but she did. My dad comes back.. stares at the cart and says-- "I told you not to move it." He goes in search of something else.. and she then pushed the cart a bit more forward. He turns around and glares at her and she stands there innocently looking at beans or something. He turns away.. and this time , my little sister goes in a flat run to the end of the aisle with the cart. My dad blows a gasket.. saying.. "I told you not to move the cart!"
I remember this being hysterical at the time, I remember laughing until my sides hurt. Why am I not laughing now? Oh yeah-- because basically, I am my dad now. What I find so incredible is that really, my youngest child acts a great deal like my younger sister! It could be birth order, it could be that she was around so much when he was a baby, or it just could be that I am destined to repeat my dad's parental agonies if I don't learn to see the humor in it all.
And mind, you, it was funny seeing him try to slip his hand in there without my seeing it. And while I cant stand for the spitting part, I can learn to see the humor in history repeating itself and hope that it will continue to do so for them when they are older... because what is it that our parents always said?
Oh yeah..."Just wait to till you have your own kids..."
