Full Circle

When I was growing up I was so emotional. I cried. I cried for many trivial reasons, I cried because I was upset, tired, sad, mad, slap-happy, etc. and most of the time I could not help it. I am still like that- sometimes. My dad would say, "We are not going to talk about this until you stop crying."

When I was growing up I eavesdropped. I learned so many interesting stories about people in the ward because my dad was Bishop. I never knew names, but I knew a lot of things that a 10 year old shouldn't have. It wasn't my dad's fault; he didn't know I was around or intently listening. I knew about family situations that probably weren't meant for my ears as well. I remember repeatedly being told, "don't ever say that in front of anyone" or "never repeat what you heard".

When I was growing up my sister and I would fight. When we heard my mom or dad coming into the room to dish out the ultimate punishment (grounded to each other) we would quickly yell out, "we were just kidding."

When I was growing up I was the police of the family. I told when someone broke the rules, I got after my sister when her room wasn't clean (only because I shared with her a good portion of my childhood), I kept watch on all my stuff and if it was moved out of place I knew who had come into my room, I knew if my sister stole something out of my closet to wear, I tried to make sure everyone kept the rules and did their chores.

Well... guess what? Things have come full circle. I now have children who tattle on everything the others do or don't do. Suddenly, one of my children has become the parent. He sees to it that everyone needs to abide by the family rules. I hear him say, "you need to clean that up or you'll be on time-out" or "you won't be able to play with friends unless_____ is done". I have a certain child who is extremely emotional and I find myself saying, "I'm not going to talk to you until you can calm down." I have a child who is an eavesdropper. He will suddenly say part of a conversation that I was having with Frank only and then I have to reprimend him saying, "you don't talk about those things, ever, do you understand?" And, my boys will be arguing with each other and calling each other names and when I walk in the room to get mad I hear, "Oh, we were just kidding." Ha! I know what you were doing, it's the same thing I did. All these things are what I did.