Muffins with Mom - A round-table discussion with a teen

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…(A Tale of Two Cities). An unplanned round-table discussion developed while sitting at the dinner table with my teen son. I had been begging him all day (a few days) to work on his FAFSA (financial aid for school) application. Pulling teeth would have been easier.

Finally, at the end of the evening, my son sat at rectangle faux marble table across from me. I tapped away at my laptop keyboard and he pecked at his. Before he dove into his task, my son reminisced on a time that I was experiencing high stress and he was the cause of it.

It was photo day. We had to drive to the studio for my son to take a yearbook photo. It was not the best of times; perhaps closer to the worst of times. It was definitely a time where my patience was not a virtue. Here’s the story as recalled by my Baby Bear.

“Ma, remember when you were stressing over picture day and I didn’t really want to go?”

“Yeah, I remember you were moving like a sloth and you were supposed to be looking for your tie.”

Read the following in your best whiny voice. This is what my son said I told him.

“J, look for your tie. Hurry up, we’re going to be late. We’re not going if you’re not ready in 10 minutes. We scheduled this two months ago. You’re wasting time and money. Do you want to be in the yearbook? It takes 30 minutes to get there, we need to leave now. I have to find the place. I’m calling Granny. LET’S GO.”

It was the worst of times. I remember rushing home from work and my son wasn’t ready. He had not gotten everything together the night before as I instructed. We arrived at the photography studio, I was distraught and he didn’t really want to take pictures. I heard the photographer tell him a couple of times to smile. I said, “Good luck with that.”

We both survived the photo session and the end result was satisfactory. The pictures captured…his personality.

Satisfied that he made me chuckle with the retelling of photo day, my son continued working on his application. BUT, he began another story….”Do you remember how daddy used to make me and D sit at the table until we ate all our food…?”

And that’s a round-table discussion for a different day.

Do you have a story of how your child tested your patience and his/her version of the story?