From My Childhood

Often I shake my head and wonder if the things my kids do are NORMAL or if I should worry when they do crazy things. Some of my favorite moments are when I see someone else's kid act squirrelly, or do something silly, or drive their Momma nuts. I know, that sounds so evil, but really it's just a matter of "Oh thank goodness it's not just my kids!" That feeling of not being the only one in the boat is a huge relief!

Recently, my 2nd cousin (hi Pam!) emailed me because she was remembering something my little brother did when he and I were kids.

I think I was about 13 which would have made him about 7. Eric will be 7 very soon. It's hard to remember my brother being that age. We were home alone and I was supposed to be keeping an eye on him. I vaguely remember trying to read and he was driving me a little crazy. I clearly remember him putting a shoe in the microwave and it did nothing. (One of MY shoes by the way!) I think at that point I went to my room and kept reading. It NEVER occurred to me that he would put something else in the microwave. Something else being the television remote control. Suddenly he ran to me saying the microwave was SPARKING and I went and sure enough, craziness in the microwave. I opened the door and soon realized the remote control no longer functioned. When mom and dad got home, I played cool like I thought the remote just needed batteries, not mentioning the incident. I sincerely was hoping and maybe even praying that it would work. Okay, so my knowledge of electronics maybe wasn't great. I let my parents go to the store, buy batteries, and only when that didn't work did we fess up to the microwave incident. To the best of my memory the microwave still worked... we got a new remote control. I only slightly remember getting in trouble for LYING (by omission, but still...) I'm sure some punishment was enforced but I can't recall what it was.

I do remember that when Jason was questioned WHY he did such a strange thing he answered "because when I put the shoe in it didn't do anything." That's little boy logic if I've ever heard it!

I share this story because, although it wasn't particularly funny back then, it is hilarious now. Frightening, too, because I have to go through 7 year old boyhood FOUR times!!!