Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Honor thy father and the tribulations of parenthood

So the other night, I come in from walking the dog to find my oldest son in trouble. He was on my wife's lap lightly sobbing. And as she looked up at me, she gave me that look that let me know I had missed something, and I'd better have my game face at the ready.

I sat down on the bed next to them and asked what had happened. My wife said that our son was in trouble because he'd forgotten to change his underwear while getting ready for bed...again. She inquired about why this keeps happening, why he can't remember to put on clean underwear every night. He was in trouble BIG time. This was a repeat offense and something we've been hassling him about lately.

Knowing how angry she was at him, my son decided to make a play. He looked at her, teared up, and said, "It's because I miss my Grandpa." And she did her best not to laugh, but at the same time, she wanted him to know that this attempt at emotional distraction wasn't going to work, so she called him on it.

And that's when I came in. After a quick recap, I gave my son a reassuring rub on the back and said, "I know what you mean, I miss him sometimes too. But you know, I'm pretty sure he changed his underwear every day, and I know he would want you to do the right thing too. So if you want to honor your grandfather's memory...change your underwear every day."

I'm going to dub that morality lesson #513. Lead a good life. Honor your ancestors. Wear clean underwear.

Hoka Hey.

Playing on XM: I've been listening to Willie's Place (honky tonk country) and XMU (indie/college rock).

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous3:31 PM

    i know how you guys feel we miss him ALOT too. especially now that we've finally got our mortgage paid off.

    he told us quite a few times that he probably would'nt be alive when we finally paid it off & he was unforchinitly right.

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