Today's blog has evolved from my blog of July 26. It has just been in the last few years that I have begun learning what really went on when the kids were growing up. It takes them about 12-14 years to figure out how to get into "trouble" and then getting themselves "out of trouble" with Mom never knowing.
Every time there is a family / friend get-to-gather, the stories start being told. As I sit listening to them, hysterically laughing because now they are funny, but if I had only known!!!
If I had only known, I would have no kids today. I probably would have strangled each and every one of them. If I had only known, they would have been grounded until they were 70 years old. If I had only known I would have chained them to a tree, but then they would probably find a way to climb the tree and fall out.
I really really believe that we, as parents, are far far far better off not knowing
what your kids are doing. We probably would never have survived. The kids would be fine, but we wouldn't.
The time two of the boys were playing something or other. They had a rope tied to a branch in a willow tree. I don't really know what it was about, but one son was up in the tree (and he had a hatchet, yet). Son No. 2 was hauling himself up into the tree, hand over hand, when "whack" hatchet hit rope, rope cut in half, boy on ground, dazed asking "what happened?"
The time Tom and I were invited to a New Year's Eve party. The kids were all teenagers. It was safe to leave them home for one evening, wasn't it? So off we went, to my sister's home in Ohio, about a 45 minute drive from our place.
Little did we know that as soon as we left the house, the kids were on the phone planning their own New Year's Eve party. One of them even went so far as to call their Aunt Ruth, and ask her to call them when we left so they could have the house cleaned up.
When we got home, the house looked great and all the kids were in bed. It wasn't until years later that we found out:
No 1 - one of the kids snuck beer into the house.
No 2 - food was everywhere.
No 3 - the place, really really, was a mess
The kids figured they would have plenty of time to clean up before we got home.
Only problem was - Aunt Ruth forgot to call. When she finally remembered we had been on our way home for at least 30 minutes. To hear the telling now it is hysterically funny. I guess things were hidden, one kid had been sick, mess cleaned up, sweeper run frantically, I can just imagine all these kids frantically cleaning up so we would never know.
We never knew until years later. One kid didn't get away, and laid down in one of the closets in the boy's bedroom, and later sneaked out when Tom and I were asleep. I will give them credit - they did a whale of a job cleaning up in approximately 15 minutes.
And the time, when Tom and I were gone - if we had known what we learned years later, we probably would never have left the house. Jerry was working at Oglebay Park part time while attending school. He found a baby raccoon that had been abandoned, and brought it home. Fine. It stayed out side, the boy fed it, when it grew up it would leave. Right!.
I just found out that while we were gone some other teenagers dropped by, so, of course, our kids just HAD to show off their little raccoon. So into the house came the 'coon. And the 'coon got away. And hid. They searched and searched, had to find that darn 'coon before Mom and Dad got home.
They finally found it hidden underneath a room divider, which was hollow inside, and there was just the tiniest of tiny holes in the back that the 'coon wiggled through. They had to tear the room divider apart to get said 'coon, and then reassemble it. Again, we never knew.
I don't know if we were super trusting, super stupid, super what-ever, and they were very very good at covering their tracks.
I could probably write an entire book on the Life and Times of Tom and Martha and the teenagers that were really really smarter than their parents.
You that have grown children probably know what I am talking about. You with young children, watch out. You are in for some hair-raising experiences.
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