Maybe I shouldn’t have told them | Living with Gleigh

Published 12:26 pm Monday, July 20, 2015

I’ve been lamenting my children haven’t been camping with us in a couple years. I’ve missed them.

My oldest wants to go with us, but now that she’s 20, she has work responsibilities. My youngest just doesn’t like to camp; not liking bugs, smoke, sun or nature in general. So my husband and I have been going solo these last couple year.

I guess it’s not solo as we do have each other. But I refer to our years before children as “when we were single,” even though we were married. I can’t even remember life before being married.

So when my oldest moved back home last week and was transitioning jobs, she found herself free to accompany us to a car show last weekend. My husband and I left on Wednesday to camp, so she was planning on driving herself to the venue on Friday.

I wasn’t too exciting about her driving that far without accompaniment. She hadn’t driven that distance alone to a place she wasn’t familiar with (although she’s been going there since she was a baby, but when they’re riding they don’t pay attention to their surroundings), so I talked my youngest into going with her.

I’m an anxious sort of person and I had a whole list of anxieties that weekend, not the least of which was the poker run that I was in charge of (an event designed to get the car show participants driving around). But first on the list of anxieties was my daughters’ drive to the beach. I texted them instructions on how to get through Aberdeen gracefully, because if you’ve ever been through Aberdeen on your way to Westport, you know it can be confusing.

I was excited for them to arrive and be at the ocean with us and enjoy the car show after not having been for a couple years. We also had a new RV they hadn’t even spent time in. Then upon their arrival, they stormed in, plopped all their stuff down in the RV, got out their phones and plopped on my bed in the back of the RV.

Oh yeah. I forgot how they spread out with no mind to anyone else moving about the RV. You’d think I would’ve remembered seeing as how they do it at home. We didn’t get a much bigger RV, but it does have a bit more interior space.

I thought they’d have matured after a couple years and would automatically contain themselves. I was wrong. The next morning as I was cooking breakfast, my husband threw up his hands and said, “I would like to sit at the table and eat, something has got to move.” Then he stormed out to yack with his car buddies.

The girls and I folded up the couch table and threw the debris (because who knew what it really was) onto the bed above the cab, shoved the rest to the end of the table making room for a couple plates so we could have a meal together.

I’m not sure if it was the sudden estrogen in the small RV or the clutter, but the next morning, after we once again cleared space to eat, my husband came in, grabbed his plate and said, “I’ll be right back.” Then he proceeded to eat his meal outside, standing up, while talking to one of his friends. I have to admit, if I hadn’t been in my pajamas still and the picnic tables outside hadn’t been dewy, I probably would’ve joined him. Our adult-sized children are everywhere.

Maybe I shouldn’t have told them how to get through Aberdeen.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website or on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh.”