Growing Up Me

My 12 year old angel, with pitchfork in hand, strikes again!  After having our satellite system for a whole three weeks, our new receiver box has broken.  I called the company and of course they scheduled us for a service call. I set my alarm to get up early for him to arrive between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. on a Saturday morning.

My daughter had her friend sleep over which was very sweet.  I unfortunately did not know that she was employing a partner in crime.  I finally wake up at around ten wondering why my alarm had not gone off.  I was absolutely sure that I had set it.  I wandered into the kitchen to get my coffee and noticed the cordless phone was missing off the cradle.  I figured that the girls had the phone and went to reclaim it. My girls are always on the phone and always leaving it in their room.  I still did not think anything of it until I find empty beds and no phone. Now, the real story begins!

I went outside in search of the girls knowing now they are definitely up to something.  My girls had made me coffee and I know I had not set the coffee maker up the previous night.  They only make me coffee when they want something or they are in trouble.  I find the girls sitting in lawn chairs, with the phone in hand, about to double over with laughter.  One of them even had tears rolling down their face, as they watched the tech drive right past our house for the sixth time.  My perfect little devils who do no wrong had turned off my alarm and intercepted the tech’s call.  They had deliberately given him the wrong directions all three times he called.

My daughter assumed the company would send the same technician as last time and decided for pranks instead of flat out rudeness.   She was extremely sweet each and every time she gave him the wrong directions.  In a perfect world, that would have been the end of the story.  However, this is real life with real children who have a streak of deviousness a mile wide.  They locked the man in the attic and stranded him on the roof.

By the time he got done, I don’t believe I have ever seen anyone move so fast out of my driveway before nor have I ever seen my kids disappear that fast.  They were gone faster than if I had mentioned washing dishes or broccoli with dinner.  I really hope we don’t have any more problems with our satellite because I don’t know if they got enough men to last until my girls are grown.

As a newly separated Mom on the path to divorce a second time, I recently moved back to my old home town.  Today, I find myself pitying any of my old male friends and aquaintences that should be unlucky enough to cross my path and dare to speak.  Oh not from me, it feels good to be back home in familiar surroundings with smiling friendly faces.  It’s like a balm to my aching soul.  It is my overprotective eldest daughter, who is as smart as she is beautiful, with a tongue like a double edged sword.

About three weeks ago, we had our sattelite system installed.  When the pony-tailed technician arrived, my gracious angel with horns holding up her halo, announced his presence quite loudly with, “Mom, there’s some hippie at the door!”  Much to my even greater embarrassment, he turned out to be an old friend from middle and high school!  But, he good naturedly brushed off my apologies for my daughter’s rudeness with, “I have children myself and I know how they are!”

As he installed and set up our system, we chatted for a while catching up on old times.  But, in the back of mind, I was pondering whether I was going to torture he with no T.V.  or the loss of the phone or both.  Worse than death to a 12 year old social butterfly.  I guess he read my mind because he told me, “Don’t be too hard on her because she obviously loved me very much to be so protective.”

That experience reminded both my daughter and me of some lessons.  It reminded me not to judge someone’s actions too harshly before looking at the reasons behind them.  It reminded my daughter not to judge a book by its cover or in her case her hippie savior by his hair!  She didn’t escape punishment because her actions were still rude just got a lighter sentence.