Saturday, June 28, 2008

I Should Have Known

A few weeks back, I posted about how I made some stuff in the backyard with duct tape and sticks. I, rather facetiously, entitled that post Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Can I Have the Duct Tape?

Well, that'll teach me to be facetious about anything.

It's started. Just about every time we're out there, the Adrenaline Junkie now asks for the duct tape. Unfortunately it's rarely a good time for the Tape to come out; it requires a lot of supervision from me, and usually I'm either watching the Omnivore or doing garden work instead. (And besides, with all the wildfires around here, coupled with the hot and humid weather, the air quality has been so bad lately that it's been physically uncomfortable to be outside very long.) If I let the Adrenaline Junkie use the Duct Tape by herself, either she'd be unable to pull it off the roll in the first place, or she would wind up accidentally taping herself to the wood pile, or the pole for the basketball hoop, or her little brother....

Of course, I'm not unhappy that she's asking to use it. It's just that, when I showed them the wonderful things you can do with Duct Tape, I was just asking for it, now, wasn't I? In fact, this was exactly what I was hoping they'd do, right? Instead, I keep hearing myself say, "Not today, dearie...."

Sigh. Life is so complicated sometimes. And it only becomes more so, the more mature and independent they become.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hehehe, I feel the same way about teaching Daughter to cook.

As essential a skill as learning to master Duct Tape of course, but nonetheless weary when she gets it into her head that "anytime" is a good time to whip up a lasagna.

What have I done?