enlightenment

     I missed 2 days of posting.  So very sorry!  We had some weird stuff happening around here again.   What's new right?  I spent over an hour yesterday talking to Hurricane on the phone.  We were discussing some path choices that Ice Cube has been making.  Things that I don't always agree with.  I'm getting used to this with having kids.  I found out long ago that you can't pigeonhole them into the box that you, as a parent, want or force them down a particular path.  I didn't always agree with Hurricane either when he was Ice Cube and Little Man's age.  As a matter of fact, I'm fairly sure that some of our disagreements were loud enough to knock the world off its axis.  And I finally asked him yesterday - what happened?  I told him - I remember you saying some of the same garbage that your brother parrots back at me now.  (The younger ones aren't very original.  I've usually heard any and every hateful word spouted before from one of the older 2).  He said:  "There comes a time when you come to the end of the tunnel.  And you either see the light or hit a wall".  How insightful.  What wisdom from the mouth of a 23 year old.  That may be my new favorite quote.  And I learned something new.  


     You either see the light or hit a wall....  What truth to that statement in life.  When you are stuck in a rut - when something in life is getting you down - when circumstances have you on a path - you're either going to see the light and survive or you're going to hit a wall.  And when you hit the wall, what choice do you have but to change.  So, my son told me - he saw the light.  Did he apologize for all the nasty, hateful things he said along that path to enlightenment?  No.  Did I expect him to?  Bwahaha.  No.  I'm just happy that he saw the light.  Now - either his brother (s) will have to find their own ways too.  But at least I have proof that the things I taught didn't go in one ear and out the other without any stops in between.  


     Here's what I learned.  You can monitor your kids to death.  You can be a control freak (which I am) and rule them to death.  You can be sneaky and search their stuff and sneak read their phones.  You can stalk their pages, twitter, social pages and hack emails.  You can ground them till they hate you and you can limit their free time till they feel like they're in a cage.  None of that is going to stop them once they make their mind up on a choice.  If your child decides to have sex - they're going to do it.  The only question is how much they're going to lie to you to make the point and in some cases - if they'll be protected or not when they do it. Because if they can't get protection, that's not going to stop them either.  They'll just try the "pull-out" method (which is so ineffectual as to be absolutely stupid and worthless).  If your child wants to try a cigarette, the fact that you don't smoke won't stop them - they'll get one some place else.  And you're not a "bad parent" if your child steps off the path the approved path.  Keep trying to re-direct them and hope they stumble back over.  And if not, hit them hard in the back of the head and hope you knock them back.  Just kidding folks.  My boys are all bigger than I am.  They all out-weigh me and they're all taller than I am.  I was just joking.  Smacking them is not an acceptable method.  You're better off putting a target on the wall and banging your head into it anyhow.  It would yield the same results.  


    Anyhow,  in the middle of all that enlightenment yesterday, my current problem child blew the tire on his motorcycle.  I had to call the school and get B to leave school (luckily after 4th block) and go pick up Mr. Hard head (better known as IC) and the motorcycle and get it to the shop.  The shop that was closed.  So they dropped the bike off and came back home.  Well, started back home.  We got B that nice, pretty truck with the non-working gas gauge.  Yep, he ran out of gas.  So, mom had to go grab a gas can and run gas up to them. I had him follow me to the store and gave him his weekly gas money.  B was like "I should have 20 miles left".  Mom who pulls no punches said - quit jumping on the 5.9 8 banger and it won't drink gas like that.  What?!?!  It's the truth.  And my smart a**ed child just looked at me and grinned like - you caught me.  And last night when he said "I want S*bway" - I said "It just went in your gas tank".  He'll learn.  And this morning - that nice, pretty truck is sitting in the drive.  Toni drove to school today and she picked him up.  See?  He's learning already.  Well, now off to the shop to drop the tire off for the bike.  


     On another note- it might be moving into fall here in the land of unending heat.  We're supposed to leave triple digits and get a cool front this week.  Our highs Thursday and Friday are supposed to be in the low 90's.  Looking forward to hopefully finally getting outside and getting some yard work done this weekend.  Hopefully.  Hope everyone had a good weekend and all my friends on the East coast are hanging in there and getting electricity back.  Hugs all!