Last week, I posted a comment at Snavy's mentioning a very unfortunate incident involving Isaac, Diana at her surliest, and an industrial sized bottle of pancake syrup. A regular reader who does not have a blog emailed me requesting the story behind my comment. I happily obliged with the following which I am posting with the reader's permission...
My son, my darling son who is the 'easy child' because he is much more even tempered than either of his sisters have ever been, especially now that they are both hopped up on hormones....sweet as the boy is, he is unbelievably accident prone. Imagine a big, loving St. Bernard who thinks he is a lap dog and still a puppy, that's my boy. To back up a bit, he was in a bit of trouble last night because we have made the computers password protected and not given the kids the password due to some abuse of privileges occuring. Enter Mr. Lapdog who figured out the password and decided to use it. I walked into him logging onto the computer. He very wisely confessed and displayed sincere and appropriate contrition. However, as we tried to change the password it seemed there was some sort of problem because someone also tried to enter a new one before us. We are unsure as to who because the boy also told his sisters the password and they are not as prone to repentance. I forgave him and explained at length why we have this rule. Daddy was somewhat less forgiving. So the boy woke this morning still feeling somewhat under scrutiny. Oh, I should also mention the boy is notorious for missing his bus so we have insititued some new procedures to deal with that....nonetheless he missed his bus yesterday morning.
This brings us to this morning when the boy awoke and shuffled out to the kitchen where he was disappointed to find his cereal was finsished. I went to retrieve the frozen waffles he didn't know we had, much to his happiness. He pulled the ill-fated bottle of pancake syrup from the fridge (may I note this was not the typical sized bottle. No sir, this is a giganto bottle I got from the warehouse store). In the 2 steps from the fridge to the kitchen table the bottle slipped to the floor and the bottom of it burst out sending a flood of syrup over the freshly mopped floor. I groaned as I saw it and he stood there paralyzed in fear for his life as the flood spread. After a moment, he dutifully began to clean it, but given that it was soon time for his bus and he had yet to eat, brush his teeth, and put on shoes (keeping in mind that shoelaces are one of the mysteries of his universe) I said he was excused from cleaning this mess.
Enter one surly 16 year old girl. I am kneeling on the floor with the trash can nearby so the sludgy paper towels can be immediately dumped. Of course, I am right in front of the fridge because I planned it all that way so as to maximize her inconvenience and resulting irritation. She attmepts to open the fridge with me in the way and steps into a spot I am still trying to rid of a sticky residue and I tell her to please wait a minute. She snarls that I should move unless I want her to miss her bus and have to drive her. I suggest if she intends to miss her bus perhaps she ought to get down and begin making herself useful in the cleaning process. For some odd reason she was not receptive to that.
Moments ago she lost all of today's privileges, tv, computer, phone for the evening. A smart remark extended it to tomorrow and ANOTHER sassy retort lost it for the rest of the week. Grrrrrrrrrr
The reader's response was...
THIS is a "classic" -- and should be the subject of a blog entry (if not right now, then sometime when you're trying to think of something to write about)! I love the way you described the "personalities" involved as well as the "actions"!
I was compelled to share...
Ok, I came back and reread this to assess its viability as postable material. When I did, I found the following Gmail generated ad in the sidebar...
Internship in Nepal $799Internship in Nepal, India Thailand, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenyawww.ifrevolunteers.org
perhaps I have found the remedy for surly teens??
17 comments:
I am SO glad all I'm dealing with is surly preschooler 'tude and screaming infant needs right now.
How the heck do you get all that syrup up?
Oh I remember those days so well. I was not sure if my children would reach adulthood and me, in prison...lol.
As for the coputer thing, luckily passwords are not an obstacle. There's almost no point in implementing them.
As for the syrup flood, Oh LORD! I think I would lose it right then and there! LOL!
Poor guy! I feel for him!
Yes I belive a trip like that might do the trick!!
hmmmm, very interesting and it might just work.
Oh man, of course this happened while everyone is trying to get ready in the morning with a time constraint, OF COURSE!
Definitely worth a try : )
if that is this turns out to be a cure please email me or let me know because I have a fourteen year old that looses her privileges at least three days a week because she opens her pie hole and nothing spews forth but sarcasm and orders! Have a good day Lime !
Ohhh...that's good!
Hmmmm, never thought Gmail could be that usefully - even teens are no problem anymore -what will be the next?
I had a large bottle of syrup that I keep on the top shelf, last week I noticed dried up syrup pearls dripping down the shelfs. My bottle must have cracked cause there was a dried up puddle of syrup on the very top shelf. That stuff is like glue and hard to clean
I like the way you ended the post..brilliant!
For some reason I envisioned the bearded Orange Glo guy stepping in and miraculously cleaning it up in seconds while shouting into the camera.
tc
I checked out the advertisement and bookmarked it. It looks interesting and I am not even a surly teenager.I am a middle aged surly person.
Oh man! Well, my sister used to say that nothing was better than the smell of little kids after having pancakes or waffles, cuz they smell like syrup all day....
Ah,I remeber those days well, WAIT........... it never ends, big kids make big messes too!
I think I would have sat on the floor and dipped my waffle in the mess. The whole last two weeks have been stuck in a puddle of syrup, I think!
But you do tell a great story; thanks for sharing. As for the girls...they will turn out okay once they go away and need their momma.
I have just spent the evening trying to convince a very tired, jetlagged four-year-old boy to go to bed. I will definitely keep the Nepal link for future use... what's the minimum age ;D?
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