When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #41

41- A smart mouth gets slapped!
Smarting off to my mother – calling her Grandma!

Have you ever sassed and talked back to your mom and regretted doing that?

I was pretty obedient growing up. I don’t remember ever arguing endlessly with my mom that much or talking back a great deal. I was a typical child and I had my temper tantrums and teenage reasons. When I was little I remember bugging my mom to death with, 'Why?' 'Why?' 'But Why?'

I can’t remember exactly how old I was probably about 11 or 12 years old. It was in the summer and my mom was going to go to town, Alamogordo that was 12 miles away and about a 15-20 minute drive. I really wanted to go with her really bad and she said no and I had to stay home. Well that didn’t’ set too well with me. I don’t remember why I couldn’t go to town with her except that I was told to stay home. (Being a parent now, I can imagine she just wanted to get the errand done quick without kids and have some peace and quiet to herself.)Humph! That made me mad! I wanted to go and why did I have to stay home?! I remember giving her a little argument and she got mad and told me to go to my room. That made me even madder! So I watched her get in her car and as she was starting to drive off, I defiantly went to the kitchen window and yelled, “By Grandma!” in a sarcastic voice! Well, she heard me all right. She parked the car and marched right back into the house right after me! Man I got scared and ran to my room and shut the door. Too late! She called out my name and in she came! She slapped me across the face and told me to not ever say that again! I was grounded to my room until she got home!

I don’t remember what happened after she got back from Alamogordo. I do remember I deserved the slap! My mom had never slapped me before. I felt bad for being a brat. I never got slapped again. I cannot answer for her but being a parent I can imagine she felt bad for having slapped me even though I deserved it. Sometimes when our children push us to the limit, as parents we don’t always remain calm and keep our temper. That is no excuse for us to lose our tempers. It means that we need to put ourselves in ‘time out’ until we can regain our calm and think rationally. I do remember that I felt remorse for smarting off to my mom like that and I didn’t do that again.