Git yer grubby little paws offa my stuff
I’ve only been a parent for five years, but I’ve been struck several times already by what my own parents did for me as a child. Soothing me back to sleep – not just as a baby, but as a toddler and young child too. Changing my diaper a dozen times a day for probably a thousand days in a row. Turning their house into a rumpus room full of toys. Sure, that’s just what parents do, but it’s all rather thankless. I’m not sure if my thanks, thirty-something years after the fact, means that much – but I offer it anyway.
And while I’m thanking them, I have to apologize too. Because now I truly understand how infuriating it is to look for something – something of MINE – and not find it where I left it.
My mother had all sorts of fascinating possessions – Bic pens, gummed foil stars, sharp scissors, tweezers, Hershey kisses hidden at the back of the cupboard – and I got into all of them. Sometimes I put things back where I found them. But more often, I didn’t. And then my mother would go looking for a Bic pen to fill out a field trip permission slip, and instead of a drawer full of Bic pens, she’d find one lonely pen. Which made her pretty unhappy.
It’s not that I didn’t understand back then that she wanted me to stay out of her stuff. I understood perfectly. But I always thought I did a fairly good job of returning what I had used (or hiding the evidence at least). After all, my brother was a much worse offender – he used the silverware to untangle his bike chain.
Only now do I realize the clumsiness of my efforts. Because I have my own little borrower who has shown me the errors of my youthful ways.
Tacy takes paper from the office. Pens from the coupon drawer. Chapstick from Kyle’s box (his equivalent of a junk drawer). The kitchen desk drawer has a child-proof latch on it to keep CJ out, but Tacy manages to wedge her hand inside anyway because that is where the Scotch tape is hidden. (Scotch tape is apparently the holy grail for kids.)
My hairbrush routinely turns up in her bathroom. After she takes a bath, she uses my lotion. My tweezers (which I have had since receiving a makeup kit as a party favor in middle school) and my cuticle trimmers go missing at least weekly.
I’ve even caught her sneaking Hershey kisses.
So I calmly remind her to leave my things alone – or at least put them back where she found them – because I know that she’s not going to stop borrowing. It’s just in her nature.
But she’ll be reminded each time that she hasn’t pulled a fast one on me. And perhaps when she’s a teenager and considers borrowing bigger ticket items – my shoes, my bags, my CAR – she’ll think twice.
Or at least she’ll never use the silverware to untangle her bike chain.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:37 am
argh! i cannot stand that every single morning i have to trek over to the kids bathroom to retrieve my brush thtat migrated over there. drives me batty!
June 28th, 2007 at 10:40 am
I can remember methodically going through my mother’s closet–taking every shoe out of its box, etc. I guess she figured if it kept me busy for an hour and a half, maybe it was worth it.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Yeah, my mother would have never stood for me to mess with her shoes. Bic pens were bad enough.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Wait. You have a coupon drawer? I can’t wrap my head around a drawer solely designated for coupons.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Yeah, Em does this. Lotion here and there, I find my ipod earbuds in her room – it’s like living with a crow.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
one of my mom’s favorite stories is about a time when she made herself a salad with avocado bits on top. she went to the kitchen to get something, and when she came back, the avocado was gone. she was a bit confused and thought maybe she’d actually forgotten to put the avocado on, so she put more on. she went back to the kitchen, and when she returned, no avocado again. now suspicious, she refilled the salad with avocado and waited. sure enough, i snuck out from the hallway, climbed onto her chair and up to the table, and began picking out the avocado to eat it. hooray for sneaky little ones!
June 29th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Scotch tape is the holy grail for kids.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I used to borrow my mom’s stuff all the time. We’re not at that stage yet, but the thought of it just makes me mental.
LOL Scotch tape. Carter LOVEs that stuff! (I take pieces and put it all over him to let him try and pull it off. Gives me an extra half hour of blogging usually.)
June 29th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
the first part of this post struck such a chord… you don’t really appreciate your parents until you experience what they did for you. And seeing them with their grandchildren? fantastic
June 29th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
You couldn’t keep me out of my mom’s make-up. Even now when I go home for a visit I get into her cabinet and put her lipstick on. Not like I couldn’t buy the same tube of lipstick. I just like it because it belongs to mom.
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm
I am so lucky, Declan is really pretty good on this issue. While my sister and I, on the other hand, were complete terror with my mom’s stuff.
July 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
I think you might be waiting until she has kids….