Today I am linking up with the infamous Mama Kat for the pretty much world famous Writer's Workshop. To see the prompts, click here.
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It was 9:00 on Sunday morning. I was fighting off sleep, as I hadn't been to bed yet. My dad would be leaving for church soon. If I fell asleep, I would lose my window of opportunity.
Church began at 9:30. I knew I would have an hour once it began.
At promptly 9:30 a.m. I picked up the phone and dialed.
"Hello?" a groggy voice said on the other end.
"Ma?" I asked. "Can you come get me?"
"Sis?" she said.
"Yeah, Ma. Can you come get me?'
I could tell from her voice that she wasn't quite registering my request.
"Get you from where?"
She was very puzzled.
I was 14 years-old and when my parents went to bed the night before, I was tucked safely in bed... The morning light had found me across town, in the kitchen of a boy I went to school with. His parents had left town for the weekend, and although he was supposed to be staying at someone else's home, he had decided to host a small get-together in their absence.
Disbelieving I was where I said I was, my mother went down to double check my room. Shocked and scared, it wasn't long before her car pulled up outside my friend's home.
Looking back, I realize how stupid I was. It was the middle of winter, in the dead of the night, in Minnesota. I walked for miles across town, crossing fields, highways, and a lake to get to my friend's. As a mother, my mind races with thoughts of all of the terrible things that could have happened to me.
But at 14, I was invincible.
At 14, my parents were foolish for worrying about me.
At 14, I had all of the answers and had the world by the horns.
I got grounded for sneaking out. I got grounded for a VERY long time.
And I was pissed.
Looking back, I realize that my parents probably weren't as hard on me as they should have been.
Looking back, I know that ultimately, they were just happy I was safe.
As I face the daily struggles of raising a difficult child with special needs, I try really hard to remember how grown up I though I was at her age. I know I need to give her some freedom to make her own mistakes. I just pray that I am able to parent her with the grace my parents used with me.
12 comments:
I'm glad that getting grounded was the worst thing that happened to you!
As we get older, we realize what we put our parents through, don't we?
Visiting from Mama Kat's - I also chose this prompt today.
Hmmmm sounds like something I would've done back then! I hope I can be a parent like that too!
~Mimi
It is reflected in my own children's point of view. They know everything, I know nothing. Now I know what my parents went through with me.
I have been in very similar situations in my life. & why did mom always tattle on me? Sheesh, we could have been so much tighter if she'd have just been my friend, not always my mother. ;)
Isn't it crazy? When I look back on how bratty I was I am just amazed... : )
Me too, I feel so bratty for the things I've said and done to my parents. Ugh~
I hear ya sister. I've got so many stories. I only hope my clowns don't put me through half the stuff I put my parents through.
OH wow at 14?? OH wait umm yeah I was skipping school in the middle of Norfolk Virginia at 14 yeah lol.. I am glad you were ok and that she didn't beat ya to death, mine would have..
I kind of want to wring your neck myself! I have a 15 year old daughter and just the thought of her doing that - I think I'll go wring her neck right now! LOL
I totally look back on the crap I did as a teenager and wonder how I even made it in one piece!
I continue to remain amazed on a regular basis that I survived my teen years. Glad you did too
I shudder at my shenanigans as a teen and often think that I would kick my own ass if I was my own mom. For some reason, she never did. It makes me wonder how I will *truly* react when my little boy pulls a stunt like that one...
Oh my! Yeah, as kids we really do think we can do it all and know it all then we become parents and a light clicks on and we're like Oh! now i get it!
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