One Woman Laughing...And Blooming A Boy

Wendy Christensen strives to be the perfect eco-parent, but as a working mother of three, sometimes this does not go according to plan

My 15-year-old son recently decided that I needed some direction. In his not so subtle way, he “borrowed” my laptop, shrunk the folders that covered my desktop and in the clear space inserted a lovely ocean backdrop picture with a quote front and centre that read:

Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

-Rumi

He returned my laptop to me with a smirk, and then ducked as I promptly threw the nearest pillow at his head.

This form of communication is a vast improvement on the usual grunt that accompanies my son's arrival home and then the subsequent shutting of his bedroom door.

I have tried all methods to interact with my son in a more “civil” way than the voice raising I sometimes regress to, but let’s be real here: the growing “flower” that he is does not always respond to respectful adult communication. Sometimes there is a need for a little bit of “encouragement” so that he actually remembers to sprout out of the ground and not fall asleep, shrivel, and die in the dirt for lack of reaching for anything. Especially the sun.

And if you don't believe me...my father calls the whole situation with my son hopeless.

I often watch my father and wonder how he became the man he is. Patient, quiet, respectful, caring. So, I asked him what his mother would do if he ever gave her “direction” and he said, “You don't want to know.” This was followed by mumbles of how he never knew being whipped by a goose wing could sting like that. Maybe I should buy some geese.