Cutting the Grass with a Pair of Scissors

Originally posted May 2, 2012

Last night I had a conversation with one of my sons regarding his preparation for moving in with his girlfriend for the summer. Exasperated by the fact that he was at Target  to buy a vacuum sweeper, knowing they were making a joint purchase on a limited budget, I turned to my husband and said, "He doesn't know he's talking to someone who once cut her grass with scissors."

My children can be very resourceful, they can also be very extroverted, emotional beings. I love that they are the people they are. However, I see my son slipping into mistakes that I made and I want him to change. Or not be that person in the first place. I love the fact that I can say, he's so much like me, until it comes to situations like this. "Have you thought of...?" comes out of my mouth more often than I can count. 

I was ten years old, and the grass was growing so tall and scraggily on a very small patch in front of our broken down, shotgun cottage. I worried about what people might think of us. So I attacked the lawn with a measly pair of scissors and tried to make it better, more appealing to the eye. The people who live in the house now have put in a garden, no grass. Why didn't I think of that?

At ten it's hard to think of solutions like growing flowers instead of grass. At twenty it's hard to think of growing a relationship that needs more than just love. But it does. Relationships need planning, communication; less fluff and more practical solutions to things such as cleaning and cooking. At twenty, there is little attention paid to the important budget and who-is-going-to-do-what kind of discussions. 

Today I've learned that while my voice is that of experience, the child has his own voice. I can help him along the way, offer suggestions, but when it's all said and done, my best hope is in how much he's like the little girl and her pair of scissors attacking tall grass.