Y is pretty grumpy in the morning, whether that "morning" is 10am or 2pm. But, lately, I have been getting the comment,
"Thank you for today, Mama!" at the end of the day. To which, I usually respond, "You're welcome." But, Sunday, after a particularly bad morning where I called Y out for obeying the "letter of the law" but not the intent (turned his computer off at midnight, but stayed up all night watching TV), and therefore being defiant and disobediant AGAIN. I told him he was nice and polite and respectful to everyone else, but he treats me like dirt, and I'm tired of it.
He had some time to think about his actions while he sat in the car during church, and then went to Sylvan for a couple of hours of tutoring after that. His mood was much improved later that afternoon, and he was actually quite pleasant on Monday morning (maybe because he actually went to sleep?). After a visit to the dentist, and before I left for work, Y told me, "Thank you for today, Mama," again. This time I said to him, "Thank you for every day, Y." His response had me laughing out loud:
"No! Mama! I no can tell you thank you every day, because some days you are MEAN!"
He was quite perplexed when I said, "Yeah! I'm a Mean Mama! Mean Mamas are the best! Grandma was the meanest Mama in town!" Y told me that Grandma is not mean and "I no believe!" I told him that Grandma was mean because she always had to know where we were, who we were with, what we were doing and when we'd be home. Nobody else's mama did that. And, we had rules that no one else had, like no crossing the street by yourself, and she had to know your friends' parents before you could do anything with them.
Y told me that his Papa in Ukraine did the same thing, "That's because you were small, Mama, but now I fifteen and I do what I want." Oh, no, not in Grandma's house. If you lived in her house, you followed her rules, didn't matter if you were 5 or 25. "Serious? Oh my gosh, Mama, I no believe you!"
Natalie
TX
