I've become aware of a little known phenomenon. Want to expose your kids to new things and broaden their horizons? Just buy something for YOURSELF and see what happens.
I'm a Weight Watcher Lifetime Member and I'm always on the lookout for different foods that will help keep me OP (or "on plan" in WW lingo). Naturally, most of this food is of the "healthy" (or tasteless) variety and some of it can even be classified as "diet" (gasp). Doesn't matter...Joseph will search it out and consume it almost as fast as I can get it in the house.
Now, this is a kid who is over 6 feet tall and weighs maybe 170 pounds. He can eat whatever he wants, so somebody tell me why the fat free chips and the sugar free pudding are disappearing? Not to mention the new bran cereal I bought for myself JUST YESTERDAY. (Actually, that one's okay, I'm pretty sure he's gonna have a visit from the Bran Cereal Fairy that will more than make up for the fact that he pilfered my food - kind of like Intestinal Karma.)
The pantry raiding isn't really that bad. I'm a mom and to me, Food Is Love (which goes a long way in explaining how I became a WW member in the first place). But, the pilfering has gone from food to actual household items.
Alex was home yesterday for Roger's birthday and to give me a chance to get reacquainted with his dirty laundry. He'd been here for about an hour (eating continuously, by the way), when he asked me if I had an "extra" toaster he could borrow (read: have).
Being a good mother, I pulled my old toaster off the shelf, blew the dust out of it, and handed it over. I also remembered an old toaster-oven we'd stashed in Roger's closet. What? My house has NO available cupboard space, which often forces us to cram stuff in Roger's closet. We store stuff in Roger's closet because, no matter how much junk we pile in there, it really doesn't look much different than it does when it's just his CLOTHES in there.
Alex followed me back to the bedroom and I held his feet while he dove head-first into the closet after the buried toaster-oven treasure. After extensive rummaging and junk relocation, he found the toaster-oven, pulled it out and managed to escape the ensuing junk avalanche. I think it proves my point when I tell you that Roger didn't even notice we'd been in his closet, despite the fact that the only way we could get some of the stuff crammed back in was to stand back, hurl it in and slam the closet door real fast.
And, just this morning, I noticed Joseph plugging my new bluetooth back into the charger. I asked him what he was doing and he said he'd "borrowed" my bluetooth and he was resetting it to my phone number.
Now, what's ironic about this is, just the other day Roger and I were thinking about buying both boys a bluetooth for Christmas. I asked Joseph if he thought he'd like one and he assured me he had no use for a bluetooth, since he didn't spend that much time actually talking on the phone, mostly he uses text messaging. Silly me, how could I FORGET that $300.00 phone bill we received BEFORE we signed on for a free text-messaging plan!
I told Joseph it was okay for him to use my bluetooth, since I really didn't use it much myself. Honestly, it hurts my ear and makes my hair look funny (and I'm always afraid somebody will mistake me for a rock star - Ha!)
Maybe that's it...maybe the boys don't have a problem "borrowing" our stuff because we've always been more than happy to give it to them. I'm hoping they remember this and return the favor when they're rich and successful. But, just in case, I'm planning on telling my grandkids every little single thing we've ever done for their daddies, and encouraging them to expect the same things and even MORE.
I believe in leaving a Legacy.
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