It Appears My Silent Looks Still Need Work
Tonight as we were winding our way through the bed time routine with the kids, I turned my back to Larry to put away the books about cheeky engines and altruistic trees. Given our history, I should know better than to turn my back when my antagonistic husband is within an arm's reach.
Yes, indeed, Mama got spanked.
Now my children have been known, on occasion, to mimic every last thing they have ever seen us do or say. So you can understand my concern that they might take their father's actions to mean it is acceptable to begin randomly slapping the behinds of innocent bystanders within an arm's length radius.
That's why I shot my best silent "what-are-you-crazy--do-you-not-remember-they-take-copious-notes-of-everything-you-do-with-the-intention-of-repeating-that-word-and-or-behavior-at-the-most-embarrassing-and-inopportune-time-for-me??" look. (Sheesh, if you think that last sentence was hard to read, you should try typing it.)
But apparently my face alone is not as articulate as I would like to think, as no sooner did I shoot the look, he teased, "I didn't do it. It wasn't me!"
At this point Caed chimed in, "He's lying, Mom! He DID do it. I saw it. Daddy, you're not supposed to hit or lie, you know."
Now Larry is a smart man (AND he knows what love is, so pretty talented really, especially in comparison to Forest Gump). He quickly clued in to the very literal perspective of his four year old, and took one for the team, "Daddy was teasing Mommy, but you're right, it isn't okay to lie. I shouldn't have done that."
Caed shook his head in admonishment of his Dad, as he tried on the hand-me-down inflection from this tired old mama, right over top of his chirpy little voice:
Larry and I exchanged "I-think-I-might-lose-it-that-was-too-funny-but-we-can't-act-like-bad-behavior-is-funny-so-we-better-keep-it-together" looks, and then we pretty much lost it.
My take-away: Brush up on silent communication skills.
Larry's lesson learned: If you're gonna goof off, make sure the kids don't catch you doing so.
Caed's note to self: Look into this double standard thing the grown-ups have going on. There is definitely something worth exploring here, no matter what they say about "context". Could be a gold mine for getting away with more stuff in the future....
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