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Dear Readers,
2:38 AM
Wednesday morning.
The doorbell rings.
My husband is out of town and all the kids are gone.
I am alone. My first thought is that the ringing
doorbell must be a prank. Then, of course, I start
to worry that it might not be. So I get up and go
down to the door. No one is there. I trudge back up
to bed, only to lie there because I cannot go back
to sleep.
3:15 AM I am still awake.
I am sure now it was a prank. But thoughts begin
racing through my head. What exactly do kids think
when they pull a silly prank like that? Didn’t they
realize they might scare someone? A doorbell in the
night usually means bad news. Do they care, or even
think, about other people’s feelings. Do they
understand that people have to get up and go to work
the next day? I’m certainly not going to feel very
energetic. I might even be in a bad mood with my
coworkers. Have these kids no sense of value of
someone else’s time or emotions? I’m now grumpy and
frustrated after being jarred awake in the middle of
the night, worrying about the might have beens and
what ifs.
The reason I thought it was kids as we have had this
happen before and found out it was our neighbor’s
kids. So I am lying in bed thinking it must have
been them again. But what were they doing out at
2:38 in the morning? Wouldn’t their parents know
they were not at home? Now I am worried for their
safety. At this point I have to take a moment and
chuckle at myself. I am such a classic mother. Now I
am worried about the pranksters and their safety.
Good grief.
4:27 AM I am still awake.
My thoughts change direction. What if it was a
burglar, checking to see if the porch light went on
when the bell rang. I did not turn on a light. Now
they might think the house is empty and come back to
rob us. I start to think of what I will do if that
happens. I get the telephone and put it on my side
of the bed. Then after a few minutes of this, I
decide it had to be kids. Now I am worried that the
pranks will get worse as they get older. How should
I handle this?
5:10 AM I get up.
Better to get up and be productive than to lie there
and think about why kids do these crazy things. I
have decided that kids today are all rotten and we
need to go back to corporal punishment.
6:15 AM I am at work.
I receive an email from my youngest, asking me to
review her resume and application for a summer
position at a scuba shop. She has earned her Master
Diver certification and is well qualified for the
job. I am so impressed with her resume.
I think back to my daughter’s growing up years,
remembering the special moments as well as the
regretfully unforgettable ones. The mistakes, the
lectures, the consequences and the tears. As I look
over the accomplishments on her resume again, my
heart grows warm as I realize that she was listening
and she did learn. Her resume details her growth and
maturity.
So for now I might blame the middle of the night
doorbell on a freak electrical event. Or maybe I’ll
chalk it up to kids growing, learning and making
mistakes, just like my own kids did. I hope next
time though, they learn using someone else’s
doorbell.
‘Till June,
Brenda |
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