My Father's Curse

"Stop eating your brothers brain and give it back to him……Right….Now!"

I am sitting there in a half full movie theatre looking at all of the astonished faces looking at me and wonder if I would be lucky enough for a sink hole to open up and swallow me up. I now realise that the curse that my father laid on me when I was an easily wound up 10 year old has come to pass. “I hope that one day you will have children just like you”

I love my children (as I know my father loved me), but I sometime wonder why we have children? It must be the fact that we only remember our childhood from our own perspectives. I remember my father screaming at my sister and I while on our way to a day out at an amusement park and turning the car around. He dropped us back at my mother’s house without a backwards look or even lunch. He then didn’t see us for a month as he lived three hours away and only visited us monthly.

I held on to that memory for the last 23 years and frankly had become quite bitter about it.As these last few weeks of summer holiday has greatly made in-roads in my sanity, this incident became foremost in mind so I rang up my dad and questioned him about it. Now my dad is not known for having the most reliable memory, but he remembered that day with the clarity that astounded me.

The day had started great. The weather was lovely and my Dad was really looking forward to spending the day with us. Then he picked us up. The way he remembers it that we started fighting, the minute the door opened. We fought over who would sit in the front seat causing him to say neither of us could. Then we started the whole (And I am sure this is familer to all of you parents out there) ‘She’s looking at me funny…………….She’s touching me………….Daddy! Make her stop……….OUCH…………..(sobbing) She hit me!’ All I remembered was my dad taking the next exit, pulling over the car and screaming at us “If you two can’t get along…….I am turning this car around and taking you both home” We were suitable stunned into silence as he glared at us both and you could have heard a pin drop. He turned back around in his seat and got back onto the motorway. That silence lasted five minutes until my sister leaned over and whispered in my ear “It is your fault” I flipped out and screamed “You are always getting me into trouble! I hate you!” “Right!” he said and did exactly what he threatened. So the next 40 minutes was spent by us crying as he drove us home to our mothers’. He never said a word.He marched us up to our door, rang the doorbell and walked away without waiting for her to answer the door. Surprised, she let us in and it took her hours to calm us down.

Typical of my family, we never discussed that day until I asked him about it recently. I do believe that my dad was way too harsh, but I can understand how hard we pushed him. After that conversation I had made an oath with myself to try to be more understanding when my boys bicker and to stay calm when they are threatening to push me completely around the bend.

Queue Flash Back to today. I look back over to my giggling little monsters, looking like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths and found myself saying…….”That’s it! Stop that non-sense right now or we will leave the theatre. You will never get to see this movie!”

The audience laughed and I made a quick exit to the door…..I love Motherhood!