This
week my daughter had a doctor’s appointment about an 8-hour drive from our
home. This requires some planning to make it on time. After covering who was
going (i.e.: drivers and patient), securing a place to stay, packing needed
items, and procuring road snacks, we loaded up the car and left the house.
We
did not, however, immediately, head out of town because the car needed a full
tank before starting on such a long trip.
After
being on the road for a while, we all needed a bathroom break. When we stopped
all three of us got out of the car without our phones.
Yeah,
I know, an amazing thing in this day and age but my daughters aren’t glued to
their phones and I hadn’t even thought about the fact I was leaving it in the
car. After all, I wasn’t going to be out of the car that long.
Not
long after we returned to the car the phone of my daughter and the designated
driver started ringing. (Other daughter doesn’t drive and I don’t do long
distances. My max driving time is two hours and even that is iffy.)
Anyway,
she answered her phone and it was her youngest brother.
I’m
not at all surprised he called, even after such a short time. After all, I had
left him home alone with his dad. My husband, being his normal self, manages to
annoy all his children, the youngest daily but since he is on the spectrum,
it’s really easy to annoy him. I’m honestly surprised he has called only three
or four times since.
I
mean between his father finding ways to annoy him daily and his nearly daily
need to discuss his favorite shows with someone, which is usually me since I’m
the only one in the house who will listen, I expected regular calls.
So
his call didn’t surprise me, nor did him calling every phone but his youngest
sister’s before he tried her phone. After all, she was driving.
No,
what surprised me is what he said about calling every phone in our car.
You
see he told his sister he’d been calling us for two hours and was starting to
panic since none of us had answered our phones.
Mind
you as soon as we knew he’d been calling my other daughter and I checked our
phones. We had one missed call from him each, both while we were out of the car
to use the bathroom.
But
according to him, he’d been trying to get ahold of us for two hours.
My
daughter excused our not getting his call was because we’d been driving through
mountains for the last couple of hours.
Of
course, we were driving through mountains, just not for a whole two hours.
As
I mentioned, we’d stopped for a bathroom break, our first such break on our
trip. We planned all our stops as close to two hours as we could. That’s right,
two hours.
Two
hours previous to his calls we were barely leaving the city.
We
not only weren’t in the mountains yet, but we’d also left the house no more
than half an hour before.
So
according to my son, he got frustrated and annoyed with his father, who he is
spending three days with, within thirty minutes of us leaving the house.
Worse, now he had to call because his brother,
who was supposed to be gone the whole time we were, had returned home already.
My
two boys get along like oil and water. On top of that lately, my older son has
been moody, grumpy, and fairly hostile.
Now
my son has to deal with his clueless dad and his grouchy brother.
I
kind of feel for him, and my sister. The last time he called I let him know I
was busy.
His
solution?
Call
his aunt.
So
my sister got the opportunity to listen to my son talking about his current
favorite shows and what’s happening in them.
Though
honestly, I can’t do anything about how people at home are annoying him when I’m
in a different state.
I’m
sure when I finally get home I’ll get an earful from my son.
Oh,
the joys of motherhood.
Smile.
Make the day a brighter day.
