Life of Wry

Yesterday, I was in a world class pissy mood. There were many reasons for it, but the one I shared with Peter when he asked was….  Wait, before I go into that, I have to mention that it’s highly unusual for Peter to notice someone’s mood (let alone inquire).  That’s an empathic response not really in his emotional repertoire.  I don’t mean that in a snarky way, it’s just that other people’s feelings are pretty low on the list of things he thinks about.  As a near teenager on the verge of summer, he focuses on little.. except maybe things like his deepening voice, the strikes he threw in last night’s playoff game, getting to the weekend..

But yesterday, he asked.

And in response, I told him about the guy who came to our house earlier in the day to bid on a [massive, as it turns out] yard clean up.  Then I told him how the guy’s estimate was too high and that we’d decided we’d proceed to plan B (living with the weeds, or me cleaning up the whole yard, or whatever, but I wasn’t happy) and I went on to say how in despair I was over the state of the yard, “and you know how I am about your room, and dad’s garage, and how I hate big giant messes and feel terrible when things are so dysfunctional and out of control, and it just seems like we can’t enjoy our yard anymore because it’s so appallingly overgrown and it used to be so nice…”

And after listening to me go on and on, he was all, “I can pull the weeds, mom.”

And I looked at him and said, “….”

And he said, “I’ll do it for half of what that guy was going to charge.” 

So we had a conversation about how that could work, and he asked me all kinds of questions about how you pull weeds, and where they go after you’ve pulled them, and I was thinking, hmmm, this could be like a summer job and it could be a great way for him to develop a bit of work ethic and at the same time contribute to the good of the household.  And if it worked, well, it’d be a total win-win.

I told him that it was a very generous, thoughtful offer and I really I appreciated it, and that it showed great initiative and entrepreneurship.  I also told him that he totally cured my bad mood and that he was a really neat kid.

He seemed very pleased.

And then I expected he’d probably forget about the whole thing, and that was fine because it was the thought that counts.

Then late this afternoon, I was working in my office when he called me to come look at something.  And of course (because you’ve seen the picture) it was a big wheelbarrow full of pulled weeds.  Between downpours (and wow, did we have crazy weather today) he’d gone to the backyard to try his hand at weed pulling.  Perfect day for it because the ground was really soft and they came up very easily. He filled the whole wheelbarrow.

And again, he just seemed so, so happy with himself.  It’s not that he’s entirely incompetent, he’s just not ever been a weed puller.  In fact, until now, he’s not really done that much around the house at all.  I’m not sure if it’s because he’s an only child, or because we’re modern parents who don’t force chores upon our kids (please don’t roll your eyes), or what, but he’s just never really been that into work, or even the idea of making money.  He rarely collects on his allowance.  Parents of the 50s and 60s would tell him he doesn’t know the value of work, or the value of a dollar (well, that’s what my parents used to tell me).

They’d be right.

Anyway, it’s a long way from the first to the last wheelbarrow, but today was a good start.

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(*)   Not my invention, but I read it today and thought it was a perfect new name for June.  Happy Juneary 1, everyone.