Parenting and Family Traits

The women in my family possess a certain family trait. Our communication with one another is often haphazard and we fly by the seat of our pants. We also have no concept of time or space. It is endearing at times. Not so much for others.

When I insist I can fit the car into that little teeny, tiny parallel parking spot and my husband insists I can not, I am not to be trifled with. I will try until bumpers lock.

When I say I'll be home in 45 minutes, my husband responds, "See you in two hours!" and he's right. When my children call for a ride home and I say that I'll be there in 5 minutes they ask, "Nancy 5 minutes or Dad's 5 minutes?"

Somehow that one insults me more than the others.

When I say "women in my family" I mean my mother and sisters. Far too often we forget to tell all of the siblings we're having cake and ice cream for a birthday until that family hasn't shown up and everybody else thought the other had told them.

Three hours before giving birth to my second baby I called my mom to tell her I was coming right over to drop off my oldest child so I could go to the hospital and I'd see her in 20 minutes. When we got there, she was gone.

It was Tuesday. Carrots were on sale and the sale ends on Tuesdays.

Overall our people have learned to live with this ambiguity but sometimes it's just a little pathetic.

With the girls at camp this week and me at work, the boys have nobody to babysit or entertain them. Not to mention, you really don't hire babysitters for nearly 5th grade boys. So I called my sister to ask if my boys could play. She finally figured out there was nobody home (because I was so clear in my communication - Oh, didn't I mention the girls are gone?) and offered to take the boys again today.

And so this morning I drove the boys over to her house where her two little boys stood out on the porch looking lost and forlorn and still in their pajamas. "My mommy isn't home," the 3 year old said with a small sob.

"Yeah," the 7 year old remarked, "I was asleep and my brother woke me up crying." They both looked pretty bleary-eyed.

Fortunately, I dug up all my empathy and judgment for my nephews and sister and quickly shoved my own boys out of the van, into the house and told them to take care of each other. I also dictated to my older son that he was now the babysitter and ran off to work. Obviously, great parenting runs in this family.

About an hour later my sister called to let me know that she had told her older son that she was running to her Zumba class but he was still asleep, apparently, and forgot. She'd come home to my older son getting the three year old breakfast (it must skip a generation) and all the children safe and smiling.

Later I called to check up on the kids and my sister informed me she was going out to lunch with a friend. She'd also gathered a couple more 10 year olds, her daughter and another niece, and wondered if she should still take my children home. Of course not. I had a good thing going.

By the time I picked up children, all of the above mentioned children plus 4 more had congregated in the front yard, the door wide open and the dog going in and out of the house. I grabbed my boys, checked all the children for obvious bleeds and signs of neglect, and drove home with my two boys.

Apparently, the women in my family also share another family trait; trust in fate being kind to us and our children.

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