2003-06-23 - 3:08 p.m.
THE WAGES OF OPINIONATED CHILDREN
Practice should improve performance but, as one gets older, one realizes that practice does not always improve performance. When one is past one�s peek in one activity or another, the most that practice can do is to make the slipping off and slipping away slower. So it is with me and preparing for trips�although I am not sure when my peek really was. I must have passed it without knowing it.
There was a time, when the children were small, that I rarely forgot anything when packing. I packed carefully, off a list, and everything I needed and they needed was there. Thinking back, my performance started to drop when the children started to have opinions. No, on second thought, it was not when the children started to have opinions. Both children started having opinions and expressing them as soon as they were born. No, the drop off came when they started having opinions about packing.
For several golden years, they had very little opinion about packing. As long as I remembered the beloved �bebes� (translation: blankies), they were satisfied with my packing. But those years passed and they started having more opinions. At first, I channeled those opinions. I gave them packing lists (with Kat�s in words because she was an extremely early reader and Day-Hay�s in pictures) and then went over the list with them choosing outfits based on my decision about what kind and how many. That process worked for several years.
But now, they take the lists and amend them. If they just quietly amended them, no real damage would be done. Except for medication, which I double-check on, they would be left to suffer the consequences of not having something. So they would not be able to ride horses at the ranch we are going to for my parents� 50th wedding anniversary. They would be noisy, they would be unhappy, and I might feel a little sorry for them but I would not feel I had failed.
The problem is that they consult me about each amendment. Day-Hay wants to discuss each decision to amend, each decision to stay with my list, and each decision about what to take. I am all for listening to one�s elders but my own mind is not quite what it used to be. Each time I am interrupted, I run the risk of forgetting something I want or need. And, in recent years, I have forgotten things I have wanted and needed. I do not forget on business trips when I have only me to pack. No, it happens when packing is a family event and it is related to the interruptions.
I have been packing this way for quite a few years now and my packing skills do not improve. Each time, I forget more or something more important. Eventually, I simply will forget to take anything at all----and that may include those opinionated children.
LAST YEAR: Bud, Or is it Pete?
TWO YEARS AGO: The Joys of Older Children
IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM:
Strawberries
My Playboy
Macho, Macho Man
What Might Have Been
Evil Canadians
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
