Aside from the “How much longer?” routine, the radio station battle might be one of the biggest sources of strife between parent and child on road trips. Or trips across town. While Lauren and I shared some musical interests, too much time dedicated to her favorite stations (or singers) tended to make my ears tired.
Even after she was old enough to drive, the battles continued when we were in the car together. Because at some point it is every mother’s job to thoroughly annoy her children, I began to cluck like a chicken along with her music, from time to time. This generally produced something between a look on her face that said, “My mom really is nuts,” and outright protest, “Knock it off!”
Each time, I told her that the melodic clucking was really fun and urged her to join me.
“Um, that’s okay,” was always her reply.
And then it happened.
Lauren was driving us somewhere, we were listening to agreed-upon music, and she said, “I really don’t see what’s so fun about the whole chicken thing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The chicken thing. That clucking thing you do.”
“What about it?”
“I tried it the other day when I was driving to the mall, and I just couldn’t figure out what you get out of it. I didn't think it was that fun.”
The mental image of her sitting in the car clucking tentatively to her music made me laugh until I hurt.
Thank you, Lauren. Thank you for always giving yourself up when you take the bait. What’s a setup without a payoff?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment