One evening Devin, eleven at the time, came out of the kitchen and very casually said, "Did you know that if you put a ball of aluminum foil in the microwave in sparks really big!?" I said, "Yes, I'm sure it does. Please tell me you didn't." Guess what? He did. He said, "At first it just went spark, spark. Then, it lit up all over!" He was so excited. I said, "Devin, what in the world made you think that was okay?" He told me that they did it on Myth Busters. Well, if they do it on Myth Busters why wouldn't it be okay? Curtis, normally the strong, silent type, piped in and yelled, "THAT'S BECAUSE THEY CAN AFFORD A NEW MICROWAVE!!!
What started from Curtis's rage, years ago, has turned into a joke that we all say (in daddy's voice) from time to time. "And that's why we can't have anything nice." Every now and then, Curtis's temper still flairs but I've kinda learned to roll with the punches. That way, nothing ever really takes me by surprise. Hence the numb look on my face when you see me in the grocery store. Don't take it personal. I'm just walking around on autopilot.
Less than a week after moving into our house in Marshfield, I went into the back yard to check on the kids. It's completely fenced in so they spend a lot of time out there. What I was met with was more than a little surprising. Keep in mind, we are only renting this house. I stepped out the back door and on the big, red, outbuilding by the back fence one of our children had painted this:
NO GIRLS
Well, that narrowed it down to three. Daymond, Devin, or Dustin. There were also initials painted.
D.C
They all have the same initials. So that's no help. But upon further investigation, the word (can you guess it?) Devin was painted above it all! Did I really even need to ask?
When I questioned him about it, he said, "I don't know, we're making it into our club house. I didn't think it was a big deal." I didn't even know what to say to that. Not a big deal? Really? I said, "Devin, we're renting this house! Other people frown on you destroying their property!" His response? "Oh, we're renting it? I didn't know." Because if we owned it it would be totally acceptable for him to deface it.
Welcome to a day in the life of the Coffee's.
Two weeks after moving to Marshfield, we let the boys have some of their "Seymour friends" come over and spend the night. Including our own children, there were 10 total. The only rules we really had were, don't be too loud after we go to bed, don't eat everything in the house, and if you play outside, only go in the back yard. Sounds reasonable enough, right?
You would really think in our almost 14 years of parenthood that we would've learned to be a little more specific. Like, "Do NOT use
cardboard boxes and slide down the stairs!" But, we can't think of everything and we must be completely unreasonable to think that they would automatically know that this wasn't acceptable. So, guess who slid down the stairs and put a nice, big hole in the wall at the bottom? If you guessed Devin, you guessed right?!
Curtis swore after this incident, they would "never" have company again, for the rest of their lives! We make the most ridiculous threats when we're mad at our kids.
But really what do they think? What goes through their heads right before they make the brainless decision to do such things. As I'm pondering this, a memory comes flooding back to me.
I was fifteen years old, we lived in a single wide trailer house that my mom worked very long, hard hours to pay for while my friends and myself stayed there and wrecked it most of the time. I remember one day, my best friend Dawn Hutchins was over and we were running and jumping and doing head stands on the couch up against the wall. Things got a little out of hand and I ran, jumped, stood on my head, and put a butt sized hole in the wall! I thought this was the funniest thing ever! Not once did I think, mom's going to be so upset. Or, mom works so hard to provide this place for us and look what I just did. No, that's just not how kids are wired. Yet, I expect mine to be different.
So, maybe the next time Dustin sits the stereo in the second story window and pushes it out onto the sidewalk just to see what happens, or I catch them with the screen popped out of a bedroom window, and the trampoline pushed up to it sneaking in and out waaay past their bed time. After all, they were "just jumping."
I'll remember, they're only kids for a little while.
NO GIRLS
Well, that narrowed it down to three. Daymond, Devin, or Dustin. There were also initials painted.
D.C
They all have the same initials. So that's no help. But upon further investigation, the word (can you guess it?) Devin was painted above it all! Did I really even need to ask? When I questioned him about it, he said, "I don't know, we're making it into our club house. I didn't think it was a big deal." I didn't even know what to say to that. Not a big deal? Really? I said, "Devin, we're renting this house! Other people frown on you destroying their property!" His response? "Oh, we're renting it? I didn't know." Because if we owned it it would be totally acceptable for him to deface it.
Welcome to a day in the life of the Coffee's.
Two weeks after moving to Marshfield, we let the boys have some of their "Seymour friends" come over and spend the night. Including our own children, there were 10 total. The only rules we really had were, don't be too loud after we go to bed, don't eat everything in the house, and if you play outside, only go in the back yard. Sounds reasonable enough, right?
You would really think in our almost 14 years of parenthood that we would've learned to be a little more specific. Like, "Do NOT use
cardboard boxes and slide down the stairs!" But, we can't think of everything and we must be completely unreasonable to think that they would automatically know that this wasn't acceptable. So, guess who slid down the stairs and put a nice, big hole in the wall at the bottom? If you guessed Devin, you guessed right?!
Curtis swore after this incident, they would "never" have company again, for the rest of their lives! We make the most ridiculous threats when we're mad at our kids.
But really what do they think? What goes through their heads right before they make the brainless decision to do such things. As I'm pondering this, a memory comes flooding back to me.
I was fifteen years old, we lived in a single wide trailer house that my mom worked very long, hard hours to pay for while my friends and myself stayed there and wrecked it most of the time. I remember one day, my best friend Dawn Hutchins was over and we were running and jumping and doing head stands on the couch up against the wall. Things got a little out of hand and I ran, jumped, stood on my head, and put a butt sized hole in the wall! I thought this was the funniest thing ever! Not once did I think, mom's going to be so upset. Or, mom works so hard to provide this place for us and look what I just did. No, that's just not how kids are wired. Yet, I expect mine to be different.
So, maybe the next time Dustin sits the stereo in the second story window and pushes it out onto the sidewalk just to see what happens, or I catch them with the screen popped out of a bedroom window, and the trampoline pushed up to it sneaking in and out waaay past their bed time. After all, they were "just jumping."
I'll remember, they're only kids for a little while.
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