At dinner tonight (my famous last words)....
Bennett was choosing to not eat with manners that have been indoctrinated in him since the beginning of his life. The lesson on manners is an old, beat-up, worn-out record. I'm not even sure if it's in English anymore because it seems to go in one ear of each of our off-spring and directly out the other. I could have just said, "Please do not use your arm as a lever, rather bring your fork up to your mouth" and with-in the next nano-second, one of the three of our children will have done just that. Like I was asking them to do it - not refrain from it.
For the love!
So tonight, with great exasperation, and in all sincerity I look at Bennett and seriously proclaim: "I refuse to allow you to succumb to barbaric mannerisms!"
I surprised even myself. I had no idea that combination of words could come out in a sentence string of that nature. Words typically stumble out of my mouth and rarely reach their intended purpose. I sat smugly in my seat. That is, until Bennett almost fell out of his chair laughing at me. Literally. He just couldn't help it. My people do not normally laugh at me when I am disciplining them. For the life of me I couldn't understand what was so funny. All of them could hardly contain themselves. The giggles dominated the dinner table. Gavin asks me if by chance, I'm quoting Shakespeare. Then it kind of dawned on me...that did sound rather funny, I guess. My attempt to evade further sloppy manners by speaking out in exasperation only seemed to further the cause, unfortunately.
Note to self: speak their language when trying to get them to understand something!
