Lovingly dedicated to you, if your kids made you cry this summer
Yesterday, I made my mom cry.
My little brother and I were in the bath and we were having so much fun, you know, splashing water at each other and emptying water buckets on the floor. And then I thought of a really cool game, really, it was the COOLEST game. I found a ball and I was throwing it at the shampoo bottle on the counter behind my mom's head and just like throwing it and throwing it and going "hiiii-ya!" all the time and I think my mom said "stop, Ben!" to me but it was just SO. MUCH. FUN. Really. I was just dying to play that game!!! My baby brother, Daniel, liked it too. Every time I threw the ball, he would go like *squeak* and clap. I didn't think it would make my mommy cry, but then, then she took a towel and covered her face with it and I laughed because I thought she was being, you know, you know, kind of crazy or just like wanting to play Picaboo or something, but she was really crying. I know because I said: "Mom! Mom, what are you doing, mom? What are you doing? Mom?" and I saw that her shoulders were, you know, shaking, shaking like a volcano, I mean like an earthquake, and my baby brother was saying "OK, Mama?" and she just like nodded her head but her shoulders were still moving. So I kind of thought that she was crying but her face was still covered and she couldn't see me throwing the ball, so, um, I just kept, um, throwing it. Because it was so much fun.
My mom always, I mean usually, she usually tells me to stop doing things like that that are fun, so I kept doing it because it was fun. And I wanted to do it. But I said "I know how you feel, Mama. Really, I know how you feel. You're frus-tray-ted and you kinda like feel, you know, like I'm not listening to you all the time and you want to say 'Why do I have to tell you so many times?', right Mama, right? You can say that if you want to, Mama. Really, say it to me, Mama. Mama?" And my baby brother kept asking "OK, Mama? OK, Mama?" -- he always says "Ok, Mama?" when we throw stuff at her by accident -- and she was nodding her head and saying "OK, Daniel" and he was still playing his game of splashing water from the bucket.
Can I tell you something? One time she said "enough!" but I thought she was joking because her voice sounded SO funny, so I asked her if she's trying to copy a dog, because her voice was SO funny, really. So then my mom emptied the water in the tub and I was still trying to score the last round and hit the bottle with the ball before she tells me to stop, even though I think she said "enough" again but I wasn't con, I mean con, I mean con-setrated and she just like stood by the door to my baby brother's room and tears were shooting out of her eyes and she was... red, you know, her face was like... really, really, super red. And then my dad came home from work and he made this face with his eyebrows, you know like his eyebrows pointing down, and he talked like this, in a deep serious voice and he said "Ben! Look at that! You made mama cry! Mama is crying because of you! Stop what you're doing!" and he wanted to have a concentration, I mean, I mean a conversation. And I felt very upset because I thought that my mom and my dad will never let me do fun things anymore, like you know, watch TV, because they think I will turn into a TV zombie, or eat too much chocolate because I love eating too much chocolate. I still like my mom but I think that sometimes she is just impatient and she doesn't want me to have fun at all. But I wish she just let me have fun.
I told my dad that sometimes I feel like I'm being good and good and good all the time and it's too much goodness and I just need to be a little bit naughty. So my dad told me to tell this to my mom and my mom was like "OK, Ben, I understand. But I am responsible for your safety. So if, you know, you want to be naughty you have to let me know before, you know, you start, so I can tell you if it's OK to be naughty now or not." Yesterday after my dad said that I made my mom cry and guess what? I was really good after that and smiled my cutesy smile and even I brought my brother's milk into the room when she was putting him to sleep, and when my mom and I played chess I argued with her a little bit about where I wanted to put my soldiers, but then I remembered and I said, "maybe you should decide, Mom."
Today I almost forgot again.
Yesterday was a really long time ago.