I walked into the office today and (I’m sorry) these women of no color look terrible. All red and blistery from too much sun. The sad thing is, they are all in their 20s and 30s and clearly have no idea how much damage they are doing to themselves. Yuck!
Okay, check out this conversation. I was on my home from B’s house and we were discussing a voice mail that my son left me. I’m in the red, he’s in the blue:
What was that about?
J was calling to tell me that if I couldn’t reach him by telephone it’s because he and T were hooking up T’s laptop to the phone line. He didn’t want me to be concerned about not being able to get through.
T has a laptop, huh?
Yes.
Sounds like they’re going to be searching for porn on the laptop.
Why do you automatically have to go to the negative?
I’m not. But I’m not walking around with rose-colored glasses on either.
Neither am I. But I don’t know how you can make a judgment like that about my son when you don’t even know him.
I was 15 once, you know.
Maybe so, but just because you smoked weed, blew up mailboxes and looked at porn that doesn’t mean my son will do the same thing!
Fine Mommy (dripping with sarcasm).
Don’t patronize me! I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
You wanna talk to me tomorrow?
You are really pissing me off so I’m hanging up the phone.
Okay. I’ll talk to you later.
That’s how the actual conversation went. After I hung up, here is what I wanted to say:
Explain to me how you can cast such aspersions on my child? In the three years that you have been exposed to him, he has not once disrespected you or our relationship. Not once. In the 15 years that I have been his mother he has never given me any real trouble. He’s never been arrested; he doesn’t do drugs, smoke cigarettes, or drink alcohol. He’s in the house when he’s supposed to be and besides tying up the phone he follows the rules of the house. During all his years at school he has had one detention and he has never been suspended from school. I’ve never even received a phone call from a teacher or principal regarding poor behavior on his part. When he accidentally came across a “questionable” site on the computer, he told me about it immediately because, in his words, “you would have found out anyway, Mom.”
When I got home that night my son was on the home computer IMing a friend of his from MySpace and T was on his laptop watching some Japanese animation stuff. No porn.
Here’s my point: my kid is not perfect. He’s a teenaged boy. But in 15 years he has not given me one single reason not to trust him. And until he does, I’ll keep my friggin’ rose-colored glasses on and if you want to stay on my good side, I suggest you keep your negativity to your damn self.
Now, my daughter ... well, that's a different story. She's a work in progress!
