Monday, May 10, 2010

"The Sins of the Fathers"

If you were like me and went to Sunday School in the '50s you probably heard a bible passage that goes something like this, "the sins of the fathers will be revisited upon the third and fourth generations". I paraphrase owing to lack of memory, but the passage itself and its' meaning, even though I was but a wee lassy, really stands out for me. Also, the '50s, were weren't so PC, saying "father" rather than "parent" or even "mother" for that matter!

Today's blog isn't religious, it was just the passage that came rolling back over my brain today and let me tell you why.

A little history:
When our three daughters were little girls, they loved gum so much that they would scrape it off the sidewalk, eww, or where ever it was that they might be "lucky enough" to "find" some previously chewed gum, and pop it in their mouths.
I can't tell you how many times I cautioned them against doing so. How many times I caught them in the act, and I hate to admit it now, but even in desperation did the old bar of soap in the mouth trick slash punishment! For that girls, I truly apologize and would for anything in the world, take that back! Not that it really worked anyway.

Fast forward to our delightful Mother's Day Lunch:
After all of the noshing and decadence that a buffet entails, the adults were chatting here and there and likewise the children. Little cousins who hadn't seen each other in a while started to break off in little groups. One little group consisting of Cathy's Catie, April's Abby and my beautiful Niece's son "M", decided to get together under the table. It was a perfect spot hidden from the roving eyes of an attentive parent.

It wasn't until my niece said to Cathy and April, "look under the table" that we saw them there. It just so happened it was right under the table at which I was sitting, so in true Nanny fashion, thinking it would be cute to take a few pictures of them, I simply lifted up the table cloth and tried to get a picture or two of our little darlings. Now If I weren't a Nanny, I probably would have gotten down on my knees, but no, no, no, not me, I just lifted the table cloth up and randomly shot pictures. There, that's my excuse for the poor pictures that you will see below.

Well these three found a perfect little hide-away almost tent like, but with benefits. (And if, I had gotten down on my knees might have noticed). Yup, you guessed it, old, pre-chewed wads of gum in varying colours of white and blue and green!


Unto the Second Generation, at least as far as two of our daughter's are concerned!
Yup, in living colour, Cathy and April's daughters hard at work! Not "M" though, sure wouldn't want to tar him with the same brush! That wouldn't be right!
Still hard at it!








Ooopsie, spoke to soon, sorry Andrea!





Pick, pick, pick, pick!




Getting a better view Abby?



Isn't he a cutie pie?


Standing Joke in our Family! When I take pictures I usually always say, "How is this picture? I don't have my glasses on." They usually chide me, heck, I'd go so far as to say, they make fun of me~wear the shoe if it fits kids~and honestly, I didn't even look at these pictures until I got home and downloaded them. Or, I never, ever would have let this go on!




In fact, it only took the parental units, aka, the Mother's to notice that there was gum under the tables and promptly shooed them all out from underneath.





Disclaimer:
We have no reason whatsoever to believe they actually "chewed" any of offending gum!-LOL. In fact, a very short while later our granddaughter, Coco, was given gum and as I was all Nanny paranoid, said: "What are you chewing?" "Give that to me!" "Coco, give me that gum!" and I scooped it out of her mouth, all the while unbeknownst to me, her mother had given her some!!!!


Poor kid! That's what happens when the "sins of the mothers" comes back to haunt their mother! I owe you a piece Coco, a fresh piece that is!

5 comments:

cathy said...

You are a blogging machine! Love the post Mom!! xo

You shoulda just given us the gum LOL.

P.S. I cannot believe I used to do that. How gross!

Allyson said...

I was an old school mommy I guess Cathy, I didn't think little ones should be chewing gum! No wonder you were all always at Mrs. Thurston's door! xxx

Anonymous said...

Great post A.A.! OMG, I had no idea that they were doing THAT under there! I thought they were just hanging out! I'll have to have a talk with my dear son (again) about how gross it is to play with the used gum under the table. (Why is it so fascinating to kids???) Funny, it wasn't too long after that (when we were leaving) that he asked me if I had some gum... I gave him and some of Cathy's girls some! xo Andrea

Allyson said...

Thanks Andrea! :-)

Truly, I don't think they chewed any, but then again I don't know where it went!-LOL

It's a good thing I didn't see "M" with the gum in his mouth (the one from you that is) or I would have scooped it out of his mouth too. Then he wouldn't like his Great AA any more now would he! Just realized, should have put his name on there, going to go right now and change to M! Sorry babes! that wasn't good.
xxxxxxx

Anonymous said...

A.A., if you had taken his gum away (the one I gave him) I think he'd be fine with it. I'm not so "old school" about giving gum... Grandpa has been giving him gum for years now. We have a special flavour and we call it "Grandpa's gum". He knows it by that name! LOL. And, that is okay to use his name (I believe you have before) and really, I don't mind. Thank you for thinking of that though and changing it but no worries. xo