and there was my 13-year-old daughter, coming out of the bathroom, with a spray bottle of window cleaner and a rag.
Me: "Were you cleaning?"
(I had left no instructions to this effect and it has never happened spontaneously before).
Her: "Yes."
Me: "Why?"
Her: "I went and got my make up [I had spotted the case open on the living room floor] and when I picked up my nail polish it smelled like anus. So I cleaned the nail polish bottle. Then, I picked up the case, and it smelled like anus, along with everything around it. So I cleaned it...
And then I died a little inside."
I loved that.
...
While we're on the topic, sort of...
A few months ago, Shackleton was ravening to become a Cub Scout. A notice had come home from school about an organizational meeting. Of course. Cub Scouts. You're 9. Why not?
It was fall and dark came early. A group of us potential cub scout parents, none of whom knew one another, filled out a form and then sat in a strangely unconvivial silence around the school cafeteria tables listening to the man who was spearheading the Cub Scout effort. There was no pack at our school, he explained, though Cub Scouts were big in both the neighboring towns. He was willing to change that for boys in his son's grade. (Someone else would have to handle kids in the other grades.) He had been more or less forced into this, he said, by his young son and his wife, on account of the fact that his older son had achieved Eagle Scout. The Eagle Scout had come up through the ranks from Cub Scout to Eagle Scout. He told us about Eagle Scouts and the high proportion, for instance, of U.S. Presidents and FBI agents who had once been Eagle Scouts - of course all of them had once been Cub Scouts. He had a fact sheet on this to hand out.
Now,I have known one or two Eagle Scouts and they were perfectly lovely and Scouting has worked great good for many people, I know, but FBI agent is really not what we're going for here. The thing that I am most proud about for my own kids is that they are not mean to other children or animals and that they say funny things. (See above).
We went with Karate lessons and guitar for Shack.
5 comments:
I wound up getting bored with Scouts because they didn't do enough of what I wanted to do, i.e. camp and backpack. Instead, I was compelled to try to make those damn wooden cars, a task at which I sucked in spades. (I was a German Lit major and Lawyer. Not an engineer.) So I quit and learned to do the things I wanted to on my own. I don't begrudge the kids who enjoy the scouts, but I think I had more fun doing what I wanted my way.
Bottom line: you'll get no argument from me.
Oh, and thanks for anus reference this late at night. I was going to have a light snack, but I think I'll pass now.
Cheers.
2 great stories. :)
Hi R. You're very welcome (for the anus ref.) I had the same experience with girl scouts. I wanted camping, maybe a little cooking if it was cupcakes or something. I got sewing and making things with sticks.
Hey OMN. Thanks for stopping in. BTW, I saw a painting that was coming up for auction at Aspire Auctions next week of a place in Pittsburgh called Panther Hollow or something? I really liked it and thought I should tip off any Pittsburgh people I know. You're kind of the only one...
I had never heard of that auction place...on my tour I saw a few goodies. If I ever finish with this house, I might think about buying some real art. For now it's pretty much the child art variety strewn about.
Oh...for what it's worth, I too have left responses to your last 2 hellos. Don't make me type them again. :)
hi there - hope you are managing to stay dry. i hear from my yankee relatives about the washed out roads & poor gardens - sounds like mudseason on steroids....
loved the blow-by-blow descript of the concert.
karate lessons will do much more to improve self confidence than the scouts. guitars are cool & stay cool - whether you are 16 or 66 and playing one....
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