Friday, March 28, 2014

Empty Threats, Witty Comebacks

I remember as a kid really being against the idea of learning to ride my bike. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my dad first tried teaching me to ride said bike by pushing me down the hill in our backyard. At any rate, my family worked pretty diligently one summer to coerce me into riding my bike, especially since my younger brother was confident on two wheels well before I was. "We're going to take our bikes to Belk Park, and you'll be stuck at home alone," threatened my dad.
"I don't care," I recall saying. "I can run fast. I'll just run along with you."

It's funny how these childhood recollections are regurgitated through the mouths of my own young ones. Tonight, Auden made a huge mess while I was reading The Hobbit to Logan. Threw playing cards all over the floor. "Now you have to clean them up," I said.
"No," he whined. "There's too many."
"If you don't pick them up, then you have to stay home alone while Logan and I go to Chicago." (My Wise-Enough-to-Know-Better Mom self knows making empty threats is the wrong way to go, but my Lazy Mom self sometimes gets the upper hand.)
"No, I'll just drive your car."
"You don't know how to drive. Besides, we'll be taking my car...to Chicago...where you won't go if you don't pick up those cards."
"That's Ok. I will run."
Ha.