To Grandmama's House We Go

That's certainly the tune my niece Carmen sings when she drops by. No doubt Rambling Raoul would chime in a cappella if he could but he hasn't progressed beyond unintelligible coos and babbles.

For Chatty Carmen, my place must seem like a relative haven in comparison to her own home. And no wonder since over here, my parents indulge the tyke as no sane parent ever could, dosing her up with sweets and goodies, buying her gifts every now and again - and generally allowing her to make new rules all the time. Not even talking about breaking the rules, folks. She writes new ones all on her own.

I know. I know. Parents change as they grow older - they evolve, they grow more lenient, a lil more relaxed with the rules. They learn not to get so het up over the little stuff.

Hell why didn't I have that as a kid? My brother and I frequently decry the lax rules the kids live under now, bitterly comparing the present child-friendly utopia to the terrifying authoritarian regime we suffered under way back when. You know what, I shall christen my brother Tommy Tough.


Brothers
On most other social issues ( and most especially on financial ones ), we might differ but on this, we certainly agree wholeheartedly.

Tommy : I can't believe Carmen just did that!
Paul : I can't believe Carmen just said that!
Tommy : I bet mom would have spanked us if we did that. The damned cane would have come out.
Paul : We wouldn't even have dared!
Tommy : Amen to that.

I swear my mother lets them get away with everything short of murder. And I bet she'd help cover up the crime as well. A total 180-degree turnabout from the strict displinarian mother that I knew as a kid!

Faced with such heinous accusations, my mother flatly denies the alleged metamorphosis of course but we know better. In her maleficent heyday, my mom on a no-holds-barred rampage would made Saddam seem like a tame pussycat. Step but an inch out of line and those scarily omniscient eyes would follow every step, narrowing with barely controlled rage as the line got closer to being crossed. Seriously, would you even think of bending the rules - much less break them?

Sure I found my canny ways of rebelling by slipping through the loopholes of familial contracts but that's something entirely different altogether.

Carmen's been given entirely too free a rein, from my point of view. Yeah, I do know doting grandparents are meant to spoil the kids ( practically written in the grandparents' guidebook ) but there has to be a line somewhere. Talking back to the elders is still a no-no in my book and when she even ventures close to doing so, I aim my own beady death stare at her.

It still works. Barely. Boy, she's tougher than the interns.

You'd be curious to know if there is a teensy bit of envy in all that? Oh yeah there is! Why the hell didn't I get some of that before? :)