On Friday night after a most excellent day, we sat down to Shabbat dinner. My husband and son had whipped it together as I had been in meetings all day and it felt really good to come home to a hot meal and set table. We started to rehash about our weeks, talk about the upcoming weekend and I suggested we have a family game night. My son was really into the idea. We started family game night a few weeks ago. Every weekend for one of the two nights, we turn our phones and computers off and focus on each other over a serious game of Scrabble, Boggle, LIFE or another game. We play competitively and everyone benefits from the family time when we are 100% unplugged.
But this one was one of those nights that would not go according to plan. My son decided he didn’t like the food. There was nothing strange about the meal and my son had eaten it all before. But he got it in his mind that it was inedible, so dinner became a farce. Our plans for the evening melted away and after much back and forth about the meal, which consisted of doors slamming and words being thrown across the house, family game night was off. The poor kid even packed his bag to go check into a hotel. I explained that the hotel wouldn’t allow him to check in on his own (being under 18 and all), but he didn’t care. He put his bag by the door.
And of course, the next morning, it was all back to normal. After he had gone to bed that night, my husband and I were shattered and conked out in front of the Lance Armstrong/Oprah. While there was more emotion than the night before, Lance came across like a real crazy. Compared to him, my family is as normal as it gets.
Everyone is entitled to their moment of crazy. As a mom, I’m sure I could have handled the moment with my son better. I actually went along with the idea of his checking into a hotel, but it was all in gest, of course, and we both knew it would never happen. He has no desire to ever leave his mom and dad. At the end of the night, I got some pretty tight hugs and the blow up was clearly blown over.
Is it ever supposed to go according to plan as a parent?
Recent Comments