Summer

Partially because I'm a visual person I'm also a list person. I get great satisfaction from SEEING things get crossed off my To Do list. But at the same time, seeing a list that is pages long can be demoralizing. It's summer, so my list has just blossomed. Every year I seem surprised to find myself busier in the summer than the school year. But as a stay at home mom, summer is when my charges are home more. It's also the time for doctors, dentists, orthodontists, and so on.
The Singer, now officially a senior as she so often points out, drives me absolutely crazy. Because she is way too much like me at her age. Her approach to life in our house is "keep it close to the vest and share as little as possible." I made her a skirt, she was trying it on. I asked if it fit correctly or if it was really a little too big in the waist. Her response, "It fits like the skirt we made last summer...I've learned to deal with it." Doesn't sound like a positive response, so I say "Do you want me to take the waist in?" "No...it's okay." The resounding positive is underwhelming. Trying to get her to tell me what she really thinks or feels is exhausting. She is uber polite in her words in the interactions, but the underlying attitude is "whatever...just leave me alone." She so obviously wants any kind of interaction that could be construed as involving conflict to be over that she spews out "yes ma'ams" and "yes, I'll do that" quicker than I can finish saying whatever I want to explain. At least with me, (and I believe with many others as well) negotiations don't come naturally. Life is all or nothing. If I tell her I won't buy her ...whatever...instead of trying to make a deal ("Well, would you pay for half of it?"). I get a cold "yes ma'am." Avoid conflict. It drives me batty! Relationships are all about negotiations. I'm praying that much of this behavior is her age and not hard wiring in her.