Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A Few

"Hey Mom? Can I have a few friends over to play video games?"
"Sure. That sounds like fun."

So today when I was getting ready to go to the store, I asked casually how many were coming for the evening's festivities.  "Around 12."  I recovered from the initial shock of numbers to ask the follow up question.  "How many did you invite?"   "20." 

"20?" I stared at my child with incredulity.  "I said a few.  You asked to invite a few. How many is a few?"  I shook my head.  "For the record," I held up my hand.  "Less than one hand worth of fingers is a few."  But then I went out to get the pizza and chips for the designated number.

Alone in the car, I had time to think.  How could we get to 12? Why didn't I ask?  Shouldn't I be happy he has 12 who want to come? Maybe living in a family of 12 has radically skewed the perception of many, some and a few for all my kids and I should make this clear now, or maybe I'm still new to this having older kids bit of parenting and so I don't speak teen. I called my brother who teaches sophomores and juniors at a private high school in Houston.

"How many is a few to teen boys?"  I asked.
"12-15" he answered.  He laughed. 

So I picked up the pizzas, added a few more sodas and a few bags of chips.  When I got home, I told him, "Tomorrow, I have a few chores for you." 

2 comments:

Kristen @ St Monica's Bridge said...

LOVE it! As the mom of two little boys who will (with God's grace) one day be teen boys and having grown up with three brothers who were once teenagers (and one is now a father)this is somehow very familiar and comforting yet foreign and disconcerting!

Therese said...

lol. Great come back. I hope he did a few chores too.

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