I despise the word “bored.” My kids know not to say it within earshot of me. I get irked and tend to hop atop my soapbox and spew back at them my father’s words to me when I was a child: “You’re ‘bored?’ Did you say ‘bored?!’ I’m sure I heard you say ‘bored.’ I love it! Come on, I’ve got PLENTY for you to do.” And he’d give me a chore list as long as my mama’s arm filled with yucky, dirty, totally mundane tasks. And he’d check in often as I worked, his disgustingly chipper tone, “Are you bored now?” I learned early on to keep my head down, look busy and keep my mouth closed.
My kids, not so much.
Keaton (13) had the opportunity to go to Great Wolf Lodge last weekend with our church’s middle school youth group. Great. Wolf. Lodge., people. My other children and I have yearned for, longed for, pined for an opportunity to go to Great Wolf Lodge because it’s in our back yard and it’s freakin’ awesome. And if I saved my salary for the next six months and we didn’t eat, maybe I could pay for half a night for all seven of us. It is crazy expensive. But the water park, you should see the water park. *sigh*
And Keaton, well, I thought it would be amazing for her to get to go. But I missed the deadline because I couldn’t afford the cost so I put her on the waiting list hoping to find the money if we got called up. Amazingly, she got picked, God took care of the finances like only He can, and I even got her best girlfriend Lauren to go so Keaton would have the time of her life.
See? Here are Lauren and Keaton when I dropped her off. She’s smiling. That’s huge.
But at the end of the weekend after I picked them up, took them to lunch, waited with baited breath to hear all about the amazing weekend they’d had…
Keaton shrugged. “Eh, it was alright.”
What?? What about the the group services, the water park, the hotel, the food??
“We had six hours to do what we wanted on Saturday so we went to the water park but it wasn’t that great. We left. We were bored.”
She was bored with all of that. Poor thing. I think I have a few yucky, dirty, totally mundane tasks to keep her busy this weekend. We’ll see if she’s bored then.
The little turd.
3 comments:
OMG....that is SO my answer for the "bored" factor, too....and I can SO see that teen voice spouting that word after a fabulous weekend :). I have a friend who tells her kids that "bored people are boring"....cracks me up! Good luck with that....we went to GWL in Wisconsin a couple of summers ago and I personally had a BLAST (and I'm even a grown up!!). Hope you're doing well!
:) Libby
My answer, too! I start out by whining back at people, "OH MY, how I WISH I was bored. It must be great to be that free!"
Oh, yes. Bored is a bad word around the Jubilant household too. I tell my kids if they are bored they must be boring too. LOL The HATE it when I say that!
My kids ask at least twice a month if we can go to GWL, but then, none of them are teen girls either!
Isn't it the job of a teen girl to be bored and blase about everything? I know I was when I was an early teen!
Post a Comment