sunday, february 14, 2010

teaching romance to boys....

My kids have been off from school since Wednesday. Suprisingly, it has been going relatively well and without incident...(if you don't count a few days ago, when I made them all get out of the car and walk about mile home in the snow because they were all being mean to me....) But that all changed at 12:58 am , Saturday morning. Jack, the skinniest goalie in bergen county, was hit with a stomach bug. Now for those of you who know Jack, he is not the most robust of young men. The kid has no body fat, none. He is a totally engima. When I go shopping for him and have to buy him extra smalls (which are still too big) I can almost hear the gods laughing at me. Needless to say, after throwing up 15 times, the poor kid looked like a holocaust survivor. It wasn't pretty.

We were both exhausted (I only say we because I was the compassionate parent on-call and was compassionate to Ari as well by making him go upstairs and get a good night's sleep-yes, you don't have to tell me, I already know what a great wife i am...)but Jack really wanted to watch the 3 point contest, the slam dunk contest, the who-has-the-most-tattoos contest and whatever other basketball nonsense that was being offered because of the nba all star weekend. I, surprisingly, was totally not interested. I stole the remote and was determined to find something that we both could watch.

I happened across the movie 17 Again and told Jack that this was MUCH better than watching a bunch of men put a ball in a basket. 17 Again starts Zac Efron of high school musical fame(never saw it) and Matthew Perry of friends (Jack had no idea who he was and I was made to feel old, yet again.) So for those of you who haven't seen the movie, it is about a 38 year old guy who wants to go back to the "good old days" of being 17...while this magically happens to him, he is able to reconnect with his kids(who end up going to high school with him) and fall in love with his wife again.(predictable yes, oscar winning, what do you think)

Anyway, we get to the exciting conclusion of the movie, Matthew Perry is professing his love to his wife, from whom he has been separated..there are tears in my eyes, because everyone woman wants to hear how much they are loved, everyone woman wants to hear their man apologize for being a moron-ladies, you know what I am talking about. As this romantic dialogue is progressing Jack says "this is sooo boring, can we please change the channel." OMG, he really is a little man....what was I supposed to respond to that? What wise motherly advice was I supposed to give him? I, suprisingly, let it go and allowed him to change the channel.

Over the years, I have delivered standard lines to my boys "I am your best friend until you get married and then your wife is your best friend," nice-right? "Please use silverware when you go to your girl friend's home for meals" and my favorite "Please tell your wife that the doctors have tried several medications but I will always be a total nut-case...." But I just wasn't ready to give Jack a lesson in romance. It would wait for another time.

And then this morning came. I was on the computer(surprise, surprise) and the doorbell rang. My boys all came rushing over to me with a box of flowers that had been ordered on Friday, to come today-valentine's day. Ari then informed me that it was Jack's idea. He had called Ari at work to tell him that he was going to order me flowers and signed the card "Love, your four boys."

I am no longer worried about Jack....but I am still going to make him watch the end of the movie when it is on again.

Happy Sunday