Kids are just made to act up

I went to the phone company because I wanted to get my phone changed to my new address. In the end, the trip cost me $50 for the changeover, $20 for the jack, and something to talk about after I began an interesting conversation with a woman.

You see, the conversation changed from my changeover request to children. A woman asked me how many televisions I had and I told her four: One for the front room and one in each of the three bedrooms.

I explained: Even if you have one child or more, they need their own rooms and their own television. Just as soon as you think one will do, they start yelling about who gets to watch what when television time comes. Like it or not, most siblings have times when they just don’t agree and that is most of the time. You may not agree with that but I find it to be true.

Apparently, she has four children with the youngest one in kindergarten and the oldest in middle school. The desperate look on her face was priceless.

After I offered her my condolences, which I did without hesitation, I informed her that my oldest, 15, is in high school and the youngest, 12, is in middle school.

She then asked me if they were active and if they did what I asked them to do. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. If television was a sport, my daughter wouldn’t have to worry about a career and although my son denies it, I think he makes a point of not doing what I ask him to do.

Just the day before I had asked my son at least five times to write his spelling words down and put them on the refrigerator so he would have them all week. Where were the words? When we got in the car this morning, he had not done what I had repeatedly asked him to do the day before. While he was captive in the car, I had him write them down.

She said she was so relieved that it wasn’t just her kids. I asked her if she also received phone calls at work complaining about one thing or another. Yes, if they aren’t calling, they are texting to complain about each other.

It is never just an ordinary day of work and home for women. Oh, no. We have to include cleaning, cooking, washing, listening to complaining, problem solving disputes and taxi service. Most days, I’m just praying for the day to end and bedtime to begin so the chaos will go away. If a day comes that nothing happens, I begin to worry.

She said she had often wondered if it was just her kids or everyone’s kids. I couldn’t help but wonder how many other parents think it is just them. No, it’s not just your children. Children are all irritating in different ways.

By the way, I believe it to be in a child’s DNA to ask one parent and then the other if they don’t get the answer they are seeking. If it isn’t, they pick up on it quickly. My children did it and my niece’s 4-year-old already does it.

During my psychology classes, the marriage part of psychology, we were shown a graph of when people are most likely to get divorced and the graph had two spikes: One in the early years and after about 14 years of marriage.

When our teacher asked us what we thought that second spike was caused by, I couldn’t help myself when I said teenagers. I was right! If you survive the first years of marriage, what everyone calls the seven-year itch, then you have to survive the teenagers.

Well, do what my mom did to me. Look your child right in the eye during a particularly stressful moment and say, ‘I hope you have a child just like you.’ The curse works, so pass it on.

Lisa Hobbs is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].