PLUS THIS:
EQUAL?
ANSWER: A knock on the front door revealing a genuinely concerned neighbor.
True.
The weather's been really nice here. I'm talking super nice. I've had my windows open all the day long. Which is great, except when you have screaming children.
So there I was two days ago. Elliot had been full on screaming for an hour because he wasn't getting his way (i.e. I wasn't carrying him around, which, contrary to popular belief, I generally only carry him when necessary as mandated by Texas State laws -- such as across a parking lot -- he's on his own at home). Jane added to the fit fray when I declined her request to wear her Snow White dress on our trip to the park.
Suddenly there is a knock on my door.
I pick up my screaming son, not to give him his way, but to verify he won't attempt to crawl out the door into the mud.
There's my next door neighbor. She smiled very sweetly at me and Elliot and with all concern in her voice asked, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
It wasn't patronizing. It wasn't "your screaming kids are ruining the serenity of the neighborhood" (although maybe that was the deeper meaning). It was a genuine offer of help.
Although touching, I declined. We were on our way out to terrorize the houses around the park for the next hour anyway.
1 comment:
maybe she thought you were flogging your children. I remember thinking the same thing about my neighbor who's son screamed for an hour every night in the apartment next to ours. And then I had my tempermental children, who at a certain age did the same thing and I was secretly thankful I never called CPS on that family.
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