On my birthday the boy next door got down to his birthday suit. I was out watering the backyard and I hear his mom yell, "Ryan, what - what are you doing! Pull those up right now!"
They have a blow-up pool for the six-and-unders. Ryan is six I think. The show went on for the next five minutes, his mom yelling at him not to pull his pants down in public, quit doing that right now!
"I'm not impressed, Ryan. You are not impressing me. You need to go get dressed right now."
Just hours earlier on the hiking trail I was yelling at my boy Oscar - he's a terrier - because he enjoys doing anything that annoys me. "Oscar, you are not impressing me eating that stick. Oscar, you are not impressing that dog by growling at him."
About twenty minutes after the exposure Ryan's dad came home. He was having a little chit-chat with his boy right under my window. I felt bad. Dad was having a hard time because I think he just wanted to laugh. Instead he talked in circles so the boy could totally understand that "it's not acceptable...it's not a bad thing...you just don't do that right now with girls...it's okay to look at girls' parts...but later in life...they just don't understand boys and girls parts and...it's not acceptable right now...but it's not a bad thing...so-just-don't, okay?"
Dad often locks himself in his garage and bangs on a drum set. I think he's raising the next Jim Morrison right next door.
Posted by nora murphy at May 16, 2007 04:49 PM | TrackBack