The Woman in the Window

When I was younger my mom would say to me, “When you get married and have kids, I hope they do to you what you've done to me.” And I would think, “When I get married and have kids, they will be perfect and never give me any trouble!” Haha! Haha!

Famous last words, right?

We lived in a neighborhood full of children. We all walked to school together, spent the night together, and play all day together. What more could an only child want?!? Lots of friends and so I was never lonely!

I got plenty of attention from my parents. After all, who else did they have but me!

You've heard me tell the stories of how my dad taught me to ride a bike, how my mama taught me to color in the lines, how she taught me to pick out clothes and how to match them, how to hand sew, how to bake in an Easy Bake Oven etc... etc...  etc...

Somehow all that attention was not always enough for me.

I remember one afternoon a bunch of the neighborhood kids were playing jump rope right in front of my apartment and called out to me to come join them. They were playing “double jump rope” as I called it then. My parents went outside and sat on the steps to watch us play. I loved all of these games—jump rope, dodgeball, Red Rover, etc. My turn came and I ran and jumped in the double ropes. And everything was going great... until, I missed a rope.

Me? Miss a rope? Already?

No! No way!

I thought, “Someone was not handling the rope properly.” I said, “You need to let me start over ‘cause that was NOT MY FAULT.”  Well, the kids didn't like my attitude one bit and called for the next person to take their turn. Not letting it drop, I shouted, “That is just not fair. I want another turn!”

Since my parents had witnessed my bad attitude, they politely sent me to my room. How dare they side with those kids and not with me. I'm their daughter! They should love me more! My dad gave me a stern look like-- “Okay, Missy, go now or you are punishments will only get worse.”-- I decided it was in my best interest to shut up and move.

I went to my room which was on the third floor of our apartment building. They followed me to make sure that I found my bedroom. I thought, “They don't deserve me. (Oh, how true!) How dare they do that to me and embarrass me in front of those unfair children?”

What could I do to get back at them?

Back in “ancient times” we didn't have air-conditioning and on those hot summer days we opened up all the screened windows. “Mmmm…” I thought, as I was left to think about the way I had acted.

Idea!

As I stared at the window and not giving it another thought, I ran over to the window (stomping on the floor as I ran) and let out a blood-curdling scream like I was falling out of the third-story window to the cement below. Can you imagine how my parents felt, thinking that I had fallen or jumped out of that window?

I’m alive today, so obviously they did not kill me but I thought for sure I had breathed my last breath. (And, I would have deserved it!) I NEVER did that again. I DID spend a lot of time in my room, windows closed!

So anytime MY perfect kids pulled one of those shenanigans I can still hear my mom's voice in the back of my head saying, “Gotcha! Now you know how it feels.”

Don't you hate it when your parents are always right?

~ Jeannie Joyner