Wisdom from kids
You just never know what kids are going to say. Especially mine. She has this quirky sense of humor that only ever really shines every once in a while. The other day was one of those times.
It had been another frustrating day at work. I'd had to do yet another late-night admission (even though I wasn't on call), which brought my overtime total to something like 15 hours for the week. To make matters worse, my parents were in town, and were waiting on me to go eat dinner so that my dad could go on to a class reunion. I didn't get there until well after 8pm, effectively making my dad miss all of the activities for that night. And let's not forget that since the kiddo is 11, she is hungry CONSTANTLY, which means she was starving by the time I got done. A perfect recipe for frustration that reaches the boiling point quickly.
We got our food and sat down, and I began to vent some of my frustrations to my parents. Since my dad is also in the medical field, he understands a lot of what I go through, so he makes a pretty good sounding board. I was just winding up my rant, and said, "I just need to learn to say NO!"
At that point the kiddo, around a mouthful of coleslaw, made a seemingly incongruent statement: "Just pretend like they are asking you to buy a snake."
I was completely confused, and not at all certain she had been following the conversation, so I said, "Huh?" She repeated, "Pretend they are asking you to buy a snake." Still trying to figure what a snake has to do with my job, I said, "A snake? What in the world are you talking about?" She then looked at me and said, "Mom, can I buy a snake?"
If she knows nothing else about me, she knows how I feel about snakes. "NO, you can't buy a snake!"
She said, "See? Just like that! Good practice." And went back to eating her coleslaw.
We grown-ups make things so hard. It took me about five seconds to figure it out, but once I did, I couldn't stop laughing. Leave it to an 11-year-old to point out the obvious.
It had been another frustrating day at work. I'd had to do yet another late-night admission (even though I wasn't on call), which brought my overtime total to something like 15 hours for the week. To make matters worse, my parents were in town, and were waiting on me to go eat dinner so that my dad could go on to a class reunion. I didn't get there until well after 8pm, effectively making my dad miss all of the activities for that night. And let's not forget that since the kiddo is 11, she is hungry CONSTANTLY, which means she was starving by the time I got done. A perfect recipe for frustration that reaches the boiling point quickly.
We got our food and sat down, and I began to vent some of my frustrations to my parents. Since my dad is also in the medical field, he understands a lot of what I go through, so he makes a pretty good sounding board. I was just winding up my rant, and said, "I just need to learn to say NO!"
At that point the kiddo, around a mouthful of coleslaw, made a seemingly incongruent statement: "Just pretend like they are asking you to buy a snake."
I was completely confused, and not at all certain she had been following the conversation, so I said, "Huh?" She repeated, "Pretend they are asking you to buy a snake." Still trying to figure what a snake has to do with my job, I said, "A snake? What in the world are you talking about?" She then looked at me and said, "Mom, can I buy a snake?"
If she knows nothing else about me, she knows how I feel about snakes. "NO, you can't buy a snake!"
She said, "See? Just like that! Good practice." And went back to eating her coleslaw.
We grown-ups make things so hard. It took me about five seconds to figure it out, but once I did, I couldn't stop laughing. Leave it to an 11-year-old to point out the obvious.