Rotten

Are my kids spoiled? I usually run a pretty tight ship so normally my response would be no. Last weekend we spent 4 days on the lake. We have a ski boat and a fancy tube with enough room for all the kids, or so we thought. We also had our cousins and some friends as well so we added another tube. They said their legs and knees hurt, their tummies were being bounced around too much, and they wanted to be on the other tube. We let that go for one day and then hubs told them how it used to be...

"Grandpa and Uncle Larry drug us all over this lake on actual inner tubes. They were black and scalded your skin. We didn't have anything to hold on to, we just wrapped out arms around the whole tube and hoped for the best. There was a spout that would constantly spray water in your face and they used a ski rope to tie the tube so the handle slapped you in the head too. They drug us around buoys, stumps in the water, and skimmed us by the bridge pillars. THEY NEVER TURNED AROUND TO CHECK ON US. If you complained you were sent back to your hot assed tent. And all of this was done from a four foot wide Bass Tracker. No ski boat for us. WE LOVED IT!"

After this monologue, every kid stopped complaining. For about fifteen minutes.

On the way home they asked what we were doing the next weekend. I explained to them that when I was a kid we cleaned the house on the weekends, then we mowed the yard like it was the White House Garden. After that we might shovel gravel in the drive or mulch flower beds. In the fall we went to every Mississippi State football game. No tailgating, no visiting with friends like you enjoy. We would roll up to the game and listen to my Dad bitch about parking. Dad would hardly say a word and only stand up when it was third and long. Even then it was in silence with his arms crossed. Your Nana would scream nonstop for 4 quarters straight. Then on the way home we would listen to the post game commentary on the radio and listen to my Dad say,"Defense my aching ass!" Good Times!

My children enjoy weekends at the lake, football games with food, friends, and too much money to by them crap in both places. I would get a coke at the game and then had to take the plastic cup home since one of my sisters would need it in their apartment.

Next weekend I think I'll get a truck bed full of gravel for our driveway for the kids to shovel and spread. Our driveway is asphalt, but I think I'll just do it for shits and giggles.