So ... my father was in for a visit recently. He lives in Florida.
On the last night he was at my house and we were fixing to leave to go to the Boy Scout Fund Raising Spagetti Dinner, standing at the front door - kids running all around and talking way too much, screaming way too much, making obnoxious noises as they do, way too much, and my father says, "I guess I wasn't good about letting all you kids express yourselves when you were little." My brother and sister are standing close by.
I turn to him, as I am grabbing one of my hooligan children by the scruff of the neck and pushing them out the front door, "Why do you say that?"
He steps into the doorway and is nearly trampled to death by another of my kids trying to get past and he says, "I guess that's why you are letting all your kids talk so much, yell so much..."
I glance at my brother and sister and a look passes between us and I say, "Oh ... we're not letting them ... (*screams loudly into the air, "WILL YOU JUST GET INTO THE CAR!*)." My dad laughs and I say, "We just have no control of our kids."
"Oh, is that it?" my father says.
We all step onto the front porch and I turn to lock the front door, "Nope ... I have absolutely no control of ... any of their mouths."
And we go on our way.
On the upside ... I've resigned myself to the fact that my kids are outta control, most of the time. I know they are too loud. I don't have a clue what I did wrong, but I tend to want to blame it on my sister. When my twins were born she told me, "You want to have bright kids, talk to them all the time, let them talk and answer all of their questions." So, I did - I didn't know any better than to listen to her. Yep ... I'm blaming it on her.