Friday, April 13, 2007

Another way my mom is way smarter than I am

When I was in fourth grade, our class learned how to play flutophones.
It was a kind of rite-of-passage.
Each of my four siblings before me had learned to play the flutophone in fourth grade, and I had waited patiently for my turn.

At the time, we had the opportunity to purchase a new flutophone or simply use one we already had.
I begged for a new one.
But Mom said no.
She said the flutophone that each of my siblings used (after my oldest brother, no one got a new one) was perfectly good. Besides, no one was using it, so it would fall into my possession in the end.
Would that make me happy? Sure!

Well, now my youngest is in fourth grade.
He is learning to play the recorder... which is a classier-looking (but not classier-sounding) form of the flutophone.
His older brother had learned to play two years ago.
And just like then, it is now just as, um, challenging... to both student and parent.

But...
When my youngest begged me for a new recorder, I remembered back to when I was 8 years old, staring at a tooth-scraped, yellowing flutophone, and I said, "Sure, honey. They're only 8 dollars."
And I felt like a very benevolent mother.

Until this morning.
When the younger pulled out his recorder to practice.
And then invited his older brother to join him.

My mom was SO smart.

Only one flutophone in the house at a time meant only one child playing at a time.

It was never about the money or the recycling.
It was always about the sanity.

Mom, once again, I bow to you!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

haha. thing is everyone bites their recorder. so it also gets chewed on by every kid plus saliva and all makes it unhygenic to share. i too had to share my recorder with my sister. she really chewed every part of it including the ends, the case even. so when i got hand me downs it was so chewed you'd wouldnt believe it.

my mom cleverly looked at it and let me use it for a while (to let me get by my teething too) before saying ok, get u a new one but lets throw out this one. that way its still one in the house.

Am sure for your kids its the same. the eldest recorder must be so chewed up. so throw it out. :) This can still be resolved !

Richmond said...

Hoooo boy. No good deed goes unpunished, huh?

The constant "practicing" around here is jsut about to drive me over the edge...

Anonymous said...

Do you rent your mom out? 'Cause right now I could use some really good advice on teenage boys. Or better yet, I'll just send her one of mine, and she can take care of it that way. I'll send birthday cards and such once in awhile.

Thank you eversomuch!
lol

Roses said...

Mrs. Who: My mom is great with teenage boys! She managed to keep them away from my sisters and me for YEARS!!!

As for the two boys she gave birth to, she eventually got one to move out, and when the other wouldn't go, she and Dad built a new house and left that boy behind in the old house!

sticks said...

I need to have my head examined. We went from the recorder to the saxaphone to the bass clarinet to the drums to the marimba. Each time the instrument gets bigger and louder and more expensive.

Anonymous said...

step-daughter, when she brings her recorder to our house, has to fight to get it back from me, because i have such fun playing it!

Anonymous said...

why dont you buy your own? Recorders are so cheap and with saliva and all eeew. why share?