You know what amazes me? The son and his girlfriend work 32 hours a week and are just absolutely exhausted from that effort. When I was raising the babies, I worked my regular job at the Red Carpet Restaurant 6 days a week, 8 hours a day for 48 hours. Then I went to the bakery for a 3 hour shift 5 days a week. So that total came to 63 hours. Oh, and some times I would take a shift at the Dutch Mill as barmaid, just so I could go dancing. Then I was home for the fun parts of cleaning, laundry, and all the other fun stuff that kept a home running.
After the kids got a little bigger and the divorce was reality and I came to Colorado and another divorce was another reality, I worked in an office 40 hours a week, waited tables in a restaurant 18 hours a week, cooked 2 shifts for another 16 hours and went to school 3 hours a night 5 nights a week to finish my degree. (Please note here that I remained on the Deans List the whole time and finished #2 in my class.) That was a total of 89 hours. And of course with all the coming and going I lost a lot of time. And of course, there was that sleeping thing that had to go on. Oh, and dating. Speed dating I called it. I did manage to marry once in that time frame. I had to quit the restaurant at that time since the guy was very needy, but that is neither here nor there in this musing.
There is a point to this narrative. The kids are on vacation. When they come back from vacation they are off to Grand Junction and some where else for training in their jobs. Then comes the fun part. These two over worked people in the prime of thier lives are moving out of my house. They are moving into thier very own space. The will be cooking, cleaning, paying bills, maintaining a yard, doing thier own laundry and all the stuff that adults are expected to do when they become adults.
Now I know you remember little Bret as the wide eyed little fellow who was so innocent he stunk, but times have changed. He works and earns a paycheck. He has wrecked his car twice, been in trouble with me several times for his choices, has a live in girl friend and it is time to cut the cord. I want him to get out in the real world and get a taste of that while he is young and still knows all the answers. And, let's face it, I have spent 55 years raising kids and I am tired. I want to clean my house and it stays clean. If I want cabbage for supper I can have it. I do not want to worry anymore about whether or not there are clean towels in the cupboard. I use one towel for 2 or three days. They use 2 or three towels per shower per day and when they are done they are "dirty". My washer and dryer run constantly.
I am sure we will have a "house warming party" of some sort. I am giving them my deep fat fryer and a gallon of cooking oil. That should hold them for a week or so. I am also giving them my pots and pans. I bought them when Kenneth passed and kept them in pristine shape hanging from the rack in my kitchen until they started cooking. Since they prefer thier pans with burned on grease and gouges, I will give them these and I will buy new ones. I am giving them most of the towels, all the queen size sheets except my pretty lavender flowered ones. Lots of blankets. A couple dressers. Not my drafting table and not the round drop leaf oak table. A snow shovel, a rake, a regular shovel, my Batter Pro..... Lots of stuff I no longer have any use for when they leave. But I will also buy them some new stuff. Not going to just use them for a dumping ground.
Do not think I am complaining for myself. Here is the deal. What a culture shock this is going to be when they reach for a towel and none is there! Or when they look at a sink full of dishes and it is there! And I would like to be a fly on the wall when they get the first electric bill. They may then understand what I was talking about. They buy their own groceries now, but only because they eat differently than I do. Bret thinks lettuce is what food eats! Days go buy when I subsist on a "no meat" diet. Not because I am a vegetarian, but because I just don't bother with the meat stuff.
Now, these kids are great at getting up on the days they need to work and they pack thier lunch. Then they come home and play video games. Some times I cook. Sometimes they cook. Or some times I cook and they cook. Rather informal so the cooking thing I beleive they can do. It is just the rest of it I worry about. But, here is the deal, there is a thing called "pride in ownership" that I am hoping will kick in here. I think it will. And if it doesn't, I am 30 miles away and can not see thier house from here. They can even fight all night and I won't know. Ahh, ignorance is surely bliss!
