Thing 2 (right) is agreeable, likes me, tells the cook dinner was good EVERY NIGHT, has $700 of his OWN MONEY in the bank, and has never gotten below an A for a semester grade on a report card.
If you were the parent, which one would YOU worry about?
WELL YOU'D BE WRONG!
Thing 2 seems to suffer FOMS just like his mama. He is going to do every single thing he needs to succeed (and we will NEVER have trouble getting him into colleges—he will probably have scholarships. He will have a good job. He will be reliable. But I am coming to see, it may be a challenge to keep him from BEING ARRESTED. (never mind that he is 11)
So earlier this week I came home and my husband said, as I entered, set down the backpack and got the dog a carrot (aka: diet 'treat') ?“What do you know about the things on the table”
Having missed them, because my attention span is relatively limited, I returned to look. Realistic looking GUN and dangerous looking KNIFE. I picked up the gun. “It's a beebee gun,” the hubby supplies (holy freaking somethingorother, thank GOODNESS) I looked at him for explanation. I am a woman of few words and he darned well better know it by now.
“That's not good.” (see how adept I am at grabbing right on the main point?)
“I'm not thrilled about it.” (note hubby's skill with understatement)
“Where did it come from?”
“I wondered if you knew.”
“erm... you know how I am about guns.”
“Um... NO. No clue where it came from.” Then I thought. “I don't think anyway, but I think my stepdad might have bought him a pocket knife, but not one like that... but... if that's it, I might be wrong.” (see how I dance around not knowing anything? Hubby has a habit of setting everything one says in stone, so it is always best to only have said QUALIFIED statements so later you can say 'well I did say I wasn't sure.')
So son comes home. “Where did those come from?”
“MEIJER.”
“What?”
“I bought them at Meijer.”
"By yourself?"
"Yeah." (tone says, 'well of course')
Okay, so the beebee gun paint pellets say they CANNOT be sold to a minor. Our son is 11. You can't convince me the PELLETS have a warning and the gun does not (though the packaging is long-gone).
How is it I (a 44 year old woman) have to produce my ID every time I buy a box of wine (which happens more often than it should) and my 11 year old son is buying WEAPONS. Gun AND knife purchased when he rode his BIKE to MEIJER.
When asked why he was so secretive... catch this... this is part of the parental fail part...
“Well I knew mom didn't like guns...”
HOLY FREAKING COW. Isn't 'mom doesn't like guns a message to NOT BUY GUNS?! How does this become a 'KEEP YOUR GUNS SECRET message? I admit to being poky to even allow squirt guns... I grew up around guns and frankly, I just don't like the idea that something DEADLY in one domain is taken so lightly in others. I'm not a major hunting fan, but don't actively object to people who do it safely and ecologically (as in using everything from what they kill)--it is more humane than beef, when I put it in that light. My OBJECTION is that guns kill. We should not be playing games with them. But enough lecture on my firearms opinion.
My REAL problem (aside from raising a rascally rabbit who seems to have his mother's take on rules (DAMMIT) is that Meijer is selling these things indisciminately. If the age were 16 or 14, I can sort of see, but NO MINORS? My son does NOT look 18. He is 5'8” yes, but his face is clearly YEARS (like 10) from shaving—hubby STILL has a bare chest—the hair will be late).
So while hubby and I get a parenting fail... MEIJER needs a huge gobsmack upside the head.