{"id":1541,"date":"2007-11-01T07:58:39","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T12:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1541"},"modified":"2007-11-01T07:58:39","modified_gmt":"2007-11-01T12:58:39","slug":"been-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1541","title":{"rendered":"Been There"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bun and Zam, my kids, are both teenagers now.\u00a0 They bring all the things kids usually bring to one’s life; sullen, crabby disobedience, stubborn crankiness, a level of consequence that I as an adult know all too well and that they as overgrown babies do not.<\/p>\n

But some things from their younger, more innocent years remain.\u00a0 For instance – blood-curdling, hair-yanking sibling rivalry.<\/p>\n

So I read this bit from Sheila O’Malley<\/a> about a passing observation while walking amidst the trick-or-treaters in rural New York City, and smiled at the familiar…emotion.<\/p>\n

Emphasis added:<\/p>\n

I became aware that 2 small boys, probably aged 6 or 7, were literally rolling around on the pavement in a scuffle. Rolling. They weren’t throwing punches, or being too rough, they were just wrestling fiercely. One was dressed as Elvis in Elvis’ bloated Vegas later years, and one was a skeleton. Standing over the two fighting boys were two mothers, and as I approached I heard one of them say – in a voice that could only be described as FLAT – she wasn’t pleading, or cajoling, or scolding. She had been in this situation 5,000 times and was merely speaking the truth<\/em>. She is an ADULT being faced with the absurd intensity of children – and she accepted it – but she did not succumb to it. I heard her say, “Nobody’s costume is better than the other’s…” which already made me start laughing. Elvis and the skeleton were rolling around due to competitive feelings about costumes. But it was her TONE that really struck me. I just fell in love with her. She was barely paying attention, actually – she was chatting with the other mother, and broke focus long enough to say, “Nobody’s costume is better than the other’s …”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the one hand, I’m picturing Fran Drescher pulling on a piece of chewing gum as she grinds the language through a North Jersey accent.<\/p>\n

On the other – I’m at the point where “flat” is all I can personally muster for yet another kid squabble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bun and Zam, my kids, are both teenagers now.\u00a0 They bring all the things kids usually bring to one’s life; sullen, crabby disobedience, stubborn crankiness, a level of consequence that I as an adult know all too well and that they as overgrown babies do not. But some things from their younger, more innocent years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-men-and-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}