A ‘guilt’ trip provides some family time together
While both my sons were on their respective winter breaks, I’ll
admit I stooped to low tactics to get them to spend some time with
me.
Years ago
– although it doesn’t seem all that long to me now – my boys and
I spent a lot of time together. We went to the movies, on vacation,
to Disneyland and the Tech Museum, to San Francisco and San Diego,
to dinner and to plays.
A ‘guilt’ trip provides some family time together
While both my sons were on their respective winter breaks, I’ll admit I stooped to low tactics to get them to spend some time with me.
Years ago – although it doesn’t seem all that long to me now – my boys and I spent a lot of time together. We went to the movies, on vacation, to Disneyland and the Tech Museum, to San Francisco and San Diego, to dinner and to plays.
They were my little buddies, and we always had fun together.
But now that they’re teenagers, I have to beg them to do anything with me.
About a month before Christmas, I had suggested going to Palm Springs for a week over winter break; Ross, the 19-year-old, did not look enthused.
“What’s the matter with Palm Springs?” I asked, seeing the look on his face.
“Nothing,” he said. “I just wanted to be with my friends over vacation.”
And as Ross goes, so goes his younger brother. Hunter doesn’t want to be with friends as much as he wants to have oneness with his Xbox, so coaxing him out of the house is never an easy undertaking.
So I tried a different tack. “How about Universal Studios?” I suggested. “We could go for a couple of days.”
That suggestion, too, was met with a decided lack of interest.
So that’s when I applied the mom’s secret weapon: guilt.
I took them out for sushi and said, “Look. I’m your mother. I want to do something fun with you. How about just a day trip?”
Well, they said, they thought that might be okay.
So I suggested going up to San Francisco to see the newly opened California Academy of Sciences, which has an aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum within. In addition, it would be a chance for them to see their Uncle Stew – my baby brother, who lives in the city, and loves to do stuff with us and act as our tour guide when we visit.
“We’re not staying overnight, are we?” asked Ross suspiciously. He visibly relaxed when I said no, we’d got up in the morning and come back in the evening.
Then I really applied the screws.
“You would make me very happy if we could all do this together, because I don’t get to do things with you two anymore,” I said, making sure to look as though I might cry any second.
So of course they agreed.
Just call it our little guilt trip.
The Wednesday after Christmas, we traveled up to San Francisco, met up with Uncle Stew, and like about 250,000 other people, decided to go to Golden Gate Park. We ended up standing in line for about 40 minutes just to get inside the California Academy of Sciences building.
That’s the problem with trying to do anything over the holidays. Everyone else has the same great idea as you do.
Eventually, we got in, and as it turned out, it was hecka fun. My boys actually seemed to enjoy themselves and the exhibits were well worth seeing. (If you happen to visit, be sure to go to the rainforest dome. It was my favorite part.)
We finished up the day with Chinese food and videogames at Uncle Stew’s house, and everyone seemed happy.
I may have had to guilt everyone into this, but ultimately, it was the right thing to do.
Mother knows best. Especially when she’s got a secret weapon at her disposal.
