A Family Affair

My mother never fails to amuse me. She calls me at twenty to six, a time when she knows that I have class (or should know, she always tries to call me on Wednesdays at this time, and always leaves a huffy message.) Tells me its absolutely imperative that I give her a call before seven, which is when she wants to leave for Windsor. I get home at ten minutes to the hour, and call her anyway, just in case she's still there.

Of course she is, sitting at the computer and answering emails for work. The conversation goes something like this:

me: Hey mom, how's it going?

mom: Ahh, well, alright I guess *sigh* Super busy you know, since its the end of the year, closing the budget and all that. Carol's off to Nigeria soon, so we're all getting ready for that.

me: Yeah I know, you always get stressed out around this time of year. [thinking: you're always stressed out, period.]

mom: It's just so hard, you know, with the boys and work and now Im taking time off work to go to Windsor, because I felt the boys deserved to have a real vacation for their March Break.

me: Right, sounds good, say hi to everyone for me when you get there, okay?

mom: Well, why don't you tell them yourself?

me: Because I'm not going to be there?

mom: Well, you could always call.

me: Well, I guess I could, but what would you do, pass the phone around while I say "hi" to every person there? Its not as if I have anything else to say really, so there's no point in paying to make a long distance call when you could just say hi for me.

mom: Hmpf, well, I don't think it would hurt you to make an effort. [Distractedly typing and not listening to a word I say] Want to talk to your brothers?

me: Uh, okay? But isn't there a reason you cal.... Hi Anthony.

Anthony: Hey Mimi! Guess what? I got blocks!

me: Hey you, that's cool, what kind of blocks? [thinking: Isn't 11 too old to be playing with blocks?]

Anthony: Well they're these things on my teeth that make my jaw straight and stuff. They make me talk funny.

me: Ooh, that makes more sense. I always wanted braces when I was a kid, since my best friend had them, I used to make up all sorts of reasons I thought I needed braces, but I never got them.

Anthony: Cool. K, I gotta go, here's mom.

me: Uh, alright...

mom: So I should go, I wanted to leave by seven.

me: Well, you've still got two minutes.

mom: Well, I've still got to feed the kids, pack our bags and pack the car.


Which is just the way my mother works. She saves everything to the last minute, which always results in a screaming match and cranky children in the car when they don't eat fast enough, don't pack fast enough, and forget to put on their shoes before they go. She won't have left Guelph by 9, I can almost guarantee it.

You'd think after 20 years of being a parent she'd learn.... but nope. God forbid I raise my kids like that. haha. I especially love how she added calling me to her list of things to do, I mean she hasn't in 2 weeks, what's a few more days? Reminds me of when we were kids and waiting in the car to go somewhere and she was inside, and you just knew she was on the phone talking to someone about something very important and last minute. Now that I'm the one she's calling, I know that its not really important at all, she's just insane. She never did say why she had called, you see. Mostly because she didn't have a real reason. It's much easier to laugh at when you are not the one being yelled at [since you are a thousand miles away.]