"The picture is so big..."

I have always taken pride in the fact that I have bright children. I started working with them when they were at a young age---- to teach them to sound out letters and read, to listen to and match notes while singing, and to be curious and want to discover and question the world around them. As they grew older, we always had lively discussions at the dinner table about authors, books, movies, history, spiritual aspects in life, and different types of music. I taught them to be different and find their own personal style, and forget about what everyone else was doing. I felt that I had achieved the impossible---children who were knowledgeable, intelligent, curious, unique, and above all, respectful to the fact that I had taught them everything they knew...

I don't know quite when things begin to backfire...

I believe it was one time when my two oldest were in their teens. I walked into the room where they were laughing about something.
"What is it", I inquired, ready to be involved in the joke.
"Nothing...", they replied and looked at each other, smiling.

That was the beginning...

It begin to take a life of its own, this joking about Mom behind her back, and then, horror of horrors, right in front of her.
It got so that I got a complex whenever any of my children were together in a room, whispering or laughing----was it about me, I thought----how can they possibly do this to me---I brought them into this world----a total of 70 hours of labor!

Well,...as they begin to leave the nest, and moved farther away and I wasn't able to see them as much anymore, I begin to be more tolerant, and not so angry about it anymore. They say that time, and, maybe distance, heals all wounds...

So, as I was talking to my oldest daughter, Hailey---we talk on the phone at least two or three times a week, now that she lives across the country--- I was going on and on about this or that, things that annoy me constantly in my everyday life---thinking that these things were just as important to her as they were to me---when she says to me,

"Heh, Heh", (as if she is humoring me and really listening to me...)

"Mom, you should get a blog."

"A what?"

"A blog...that way you can write all these things out that frustrate you or happen to you----or just to get things off your chest..."

".................."(hmmm, I'm thinking----is this so I won't be annoying you with my weekly monologue?)

"I don't think that I can set it up by myself...", I reply. (I do admit that my children are more knowledgeable on the computer than me)

"No, YOU can do it-----its EASY."

Ok, so I got the hint and have proceeded to set this thing up.

I felt pretty good about doing it myself. I'm looking forward to venting to whomever wants to listen...or rather...read about it...

So, after getting it set up---mostly by trial and lots of error, I invite my second daughter, Brinna, visiting from Rhode Island, to peruse and praise what her superior mother has done...

Her first reply, with a laugh...

"But Mom, the picture is SOOOOO big!"

I rest my case.