The Brains of the Family

Here’s where I literally had to bite my tongue and concentrate very hard on cleaning my contacts.

“Joaquin, people are smart in all different kinds of ways.  There are some things that I know how to do better than Mommy does, and so she asks for help because I can help her.  But there are lots of things Mommy is better at, and then I ask for her help.  Understand?”

Joaquin must have nodded, because I could hear Ken gently continue.  “Later on today, you need to apologize to your mommy, because even though you didn’t mean to hurt her feelings, that’s what your words did.”  Sniffling and whimpering ensued, so I turned the water on to try and let the boy save face.

Later that day, he attempted something that I think was meant to be an apology, and I accepted it.  By Saturday, the incident had been forgotten.

Or so I thought.

While we were out running some errands, Ken ran into the grocery store for a few items, and the rest of us waited in the car.  As I flipped through the radio stations, I could hear Joaquin’s voice from the seat behind me.

“Mommy?  Do you know why we all like you?”  he asked.   I stopped channel surfing.  My sweetheart of a boy was back!  He was going to come out with the sort of compliment only a small boy can pay his mother!  The kind to fill a heart to overflowing!  The kind that makes all the trials of motherhood utterly and completely worth it!

I couldn’t wait.

“No, Joaquin.  Why do you all like me?”

The answer?

A shrug and a disinterested voice, “Yeah.  I don’t know either.”

Thanks, ladykiller.  It’s moments like that which make the whole motherhood gig totally worth it.

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Cari Donaldson lives on a New England farm with her high school sweetheart, their six kids, and a menagerie of animals of varying usefulness. She is the author of Pope Awesome and Other Stories, and has a website for her farm, Ghost Fawn Homestead.

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