pieces and ponderings

“Please, leave your brother alone!” I heard those words coming out of my mouth yesterday morning, as I gathered dirty laundry from a clothes hamper.  Two of my sons were in one of their bedrooms…one was evidently doing something that the other one didn’t like.  One of them kept saying, “Stop it!”

The other brother simply ignored the “Stop it” pleas.  That’s when I called out, “Please, leave your brother alone!”

I was surprised when the words left my mouth.  I was surprised because I realized that I don’t say that phrase as often as I used to say it.  But…as was proven yesterday…situations still arise where those are the only words for a mom to say.

Then I remembered saying similar words a few days ago when we were driving somewhere.  Three of our five children were sitting in the backseat…the middle seat…not the back, back seat of our SUV.  But because they couldn’t sit in the middle seat without me telling them to leave one another alone, I was threatening to send one of them to the furthest back seat.  He looked at me with astonishment as I pronounced the threatened consequences that bothering brothers would bring.

But it’s not just the younger brothers that bother their siblings; even my older children still bother their siblings.  It leaves me wondering if they will have a desire to bother even when they are several decades old.

And then I remembered last night…when I went into child number 2’s bedroom.  She was contentedly busy working on something on her computer.  I decided that it was a good time to tickle her.  She glared at me and said, “Stop it!”

I tickled her again.

Yes…there will probably always be a time in my family’s life when I’m saying something like, “Please, leave your brother alone!”  I guess it’s in their genes to bother.