Staying put?

“Where are you?” a voice asked.

“I’m with Dad. I’m fishing,” I replied.

“I’m hungry,” the voice said.

“Make your own lunch. I’m fishing,” I answered.

Big sigh, then the sound of a kid hanging up the phone. Don’t feel too sorry for him – this conversation took place several years ago, when my youngest son was about 17 years old. He had just come home from work for a quick lunch and decided there was nothing good to eat. The funny thing (to me, anyway) is he worked for a grocery store at the time.

These days, we don’t need to clear it with any kids when we run away from home for a few hours, but we do need to get a dog-sitter when we escape overnight. We rarely get big sighs out of him over it. Usually a neighbor just lets him in at night and out in the morning.

This growing older thing isn’t so bad when it comes with less “Mom!”

I actually did get a phone call from a kid just as we were coming off the lake Sunday afternoon. It was the middle kid, and he wanted to know if we were still out on the lake.

“Just heading home,” I informed him.

“I was going to bring Jess out to fish,” he explained with a bit of whine in his voice.

I pointed out we had been there since Friday morning, which he very well knew, and we had to head home and get ready for our work week. He argued a bit, I stood firm.

He let out a big sigh and mumbled “OK.” Sheesh, he’s 22 years old. Dude, if you want to go fishing, go fishing! No Mommy required!

 I think it drives the kids nuts when we’re not just sitting quietly at home waiting for them to call and see what we’re up to. It bugs them that we just won’t stay where they left us.

That is so cool.