Last Sunday, I took my younger sister’s children for the night. They are 12 (and triplets) and quite delightful children with whom to spend a mini-vacation. I had a Groupon for one night at a resort in Lake Geneva, Wisc. We set off for our trip at about 1 pm. on Sunday afternoon. Matt rode shotgun; Jack and Elizabeth shared the back seat.
The trip to Lake Geneva is short, but long enough for Elizabeth to make a video of the contents of her travel make-up bag (Jack acted as camera man) and for the four of us to enjoy conversation. About 45 minutes into our trip, I asked what they had done for fun the week before. The three told me about a trip to a water park with their mom. And, because no trip to the water park is complete without a fight, they told me about that, too.
It seems one of the slides was a multiple-person ride, with at least two manning a raft that slides down a tube. The fight took place because of this slide.
Somehow, Jack and Elizabeth ended up on a raft without Matt. Which meant Matt had to ride down the tube with a life guard.
It seems that this is an awful thing to happen, riding down a tube with a life guard. In my efforts to understand why this is horrible, I asked Matt, “Was the life guard a girl?”
Nope. A guy.
Ah, tween angst. When you’re 12, you don’t want to spend time with a stranger. Especially on a raft in a water park.
And, then I heard Matt: “You owe me,” he said, head and hand pointing at both siblings in the back seat. Matt was so vehement that I almost asked Elizabeth to pass my purse so I could hand over a few bucks. I felt like I owed him, too.
Elizabeth screeched her dissenting opinion. And, then Jack said, “Why are you talking about this, Matt? We’re not there. This happened last week. What does it matter?”
A few more “You owe me!” met a few more “We’re not there. Why are you talking about this today?” which ultimately ended in silence.
Jack would not be guilted into owing. It was luck of the draw at the slides. Matt had bad luck. Jack sympathized but he didn’t take on the belief anyone was owed.
Wow, I thought, as I listened to Jack’s calm resistance to Matt’s blaming finger. I’m going to remember this. How nice life will be when I stop packing my luggage with someone’s baggage. A good lesson to learn from a 12-year-old.
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Trish
Denise, This is a great example of how everyone handles life’s challenges differently. At 12, this is how Matt, Jack and Elizabeth handle their bumps in the road (it may be different, though, at 15, 21, 30!). I love the lesson you got from it (it’s a great quote which you should tweet if you haven’t already!). Must have been nice to get away for a bit!
kristin
Wow! to both Matt’s self-assurance and your one-liner. Thanks for the story. If it were on videotape, I could have used something like this in my practice. “If a 12-year-old can do it….”