#ButIDidntKnow #PickYourBattle #Stress #YouNeverSaid #Awareness #Options #Choices #Lesson #Learn #Parenting #TVOff

by SHAWN TRAUTMAN

“Good news! Your youngest has been located!” – Joanna

I took a screenshot of our FaceTime conversation just seconds after it started. That’s the first picture.

And no, it’s not uncommon for us to FaceTime each other here as it’s not as easy as you think to hear people from one floor to the next, much less from one side of the house to the other.

And, mind you, with conversations, movies, music, games, cooking projects, etc., it gets loud around here.

So, the other night, I get this call from Joanna and she’s smiling. This was not a regular smile, but rather a smile that I could tell was the beginnings of a much unhappier version of her face.

About 10 seconds later (after showing me the floor), she came back to her face (that’s when the 2nd screenshot was taken).

What was on the floor?

Our youngest. On the floor. Dragging along like an anchor through mud at Joanna’s feet as she walked.

“What in the world?” I asked.

It turns out that someone was well past her time on the TV and Joanna had just turned the TV off and took the controller.

It was then that the game of “capture the ankle” began and, consequently, the call to me.

It’s strange to me how kids are often surprised by things happening precisely like you tell them they’ll happen.

“But I didn’t know!”

“No one told me!”

“This isn’t fair!”

Or my favorite

“There’s not a clock down here so how would I have known?”

If this, then that…

“Well, that’s not fair!”

“When you’re done with this, you’ll get that… “ that model works well, but only when there are expectations and buy in.

In this case, it was merely that she had noticeably disappeared, was non responsive & had work to finish upstairs. Else, she’d have probably gotten away with it.

Nonetheless, the screenshots here will serve as a great reminder of the daily struggle here and how it’s both comical and exhausting.

I’d say it’s that we’re getting a bit stir crazy… but, really, stir crazy is an understatement for those of us in a small town who just want to get out and see people.

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