Bob and I asked the young couple with two small children to go to dinner with us after church. She is a manager of Bank of America branches in three cities. He is an engineer. They have two lovely children. One is 5 and the other is 7. We had a nice lunch. It took Bob and me back 45 years when we were rearing our own children. We shared a couple of stories with them.
When Keith, who is now 53, was five, he was constantly threatening to run away from home. Finally, I was tired of it. I told him to go ahead and run away from home. I asked him where he was going and he told me he was going to go live with grandma. He packed his bag and took off. I held my breath. He walked way around the curve and sat down on the curb there. I could see him sitting there. I took his three year old sister and baby brother and put them in the car. We drove by him and stopped the car. I rolled down the window and said, "Why are you sitting here? I thought you were gong to live with grandma.' He said, "I don't know where she lives." I said, "Well, that's your problem. We are going up to the drug staore to get a coke. If you will never threaten to run away from home again, you are welcome to come go with us." He thought a minute and got in the car. That was the last time I heard about "running away from home." Needless to say, I was relieved.
The second story was about our daughter. Leslie was a terrible eater. We had a family rule. You didn't have to put much food on your plate but you had to eat all of it if you wanted dessert. Leslie didn't get dessert until she was eight. Sometimes she would be sitting in the kitchen for an hour after the rest of us had finished. Finally it appeared she was doing better and we thought we had finally won that battle. Then one evening, I was scrubbing the kitchen floor and got a whiff of something really rotten. I finally tracked it down. The round oak kitchen table had a small box where the two sides of the table came together. In that little box, under the table, were several dozen paper napkins filled with rotten food. She had been stuffing it in there instead of eating it.
Needless t say, she got a blistering.
I had forgotten the challenge of rearing children until we shared those stories..
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2 comments:
Margie, Sounds like you all had a great lunch. The stories about your children are so funny. I had a neighbor child run away and come to my home one time. She told her mother she was going to live at my house!! I am keeping my grandbaby all night tonight so he will get to see all the new toys I bought him and his wagon!
In retrospect, we had it rather easy in my day. I wouldn't want to raise a child now for any amount of money.
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