Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Sorry

As I get older and wiser, self-awareness has provided me the ability to admit that I'm not all that perfect. Not that I was always so self-assured and confident. Very far from that. But somewhere along the line, I started believing all those encouraging words that my parents were telling me about being strong, smart, and - as I become more like my mother - ALWAYS right.

There were hints of this as a young child. Let's take a peek at a little vignette of when I was about 6 years old, playing that classic Hasbro Game :"SORRY" with a few older kids...

"Karen, you picked that card, lucky you! Now you can take anyone else's guy and put yours there!"

Gee, this was fun. I could actually win over these big kids!

"Okay, now that you moved your guy, you have to say "SORRY" really loudly!!"

I thought, uh, I don't think so. Why should I say sorry? I didn't do anything wrong. I picked the sorry card and made the necessary move. It was part of the game.


So I said, "No. I'm not going to say sorry."

They all looked at each other and then the eldest said,

"But you have to Karen, it's in the rules." (*I just checked of course, and it isn't - almost 40 years later and it still smarts!)

I shook my head. No way was I going to say "SORRY" for doing everything right.

So they all started chanting "SOR-RY, SOR-RY, SOR-RY!!!!!!"

And I started to bawl.

I never did say sorry.

A tragic tale. To this day, it remains very hard for me to say I'm sorry.

*****

So the point of this story? Turns out my son has been a lunch monitor since the school year started. And apparently he rocks at it... so much so that when he mentioned that he might not continue into the next term, the Grade 2 class wrote him a bunch of "Thank You" cards.

Only they weren't so much 'Thank you" as "Sorry" cards (as in "Sorry I was loud", "Sorry I was bad", "Sorry I didn't listen")

I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it for myself.



I guess there is hope for the next generation.

****

A Denouement:

I recounted my "sorry" boardgame tale to my brother and sister-in-law about a week before the holidays. My brother, being more than a few years younger than me, wasn't yet around to witness my traumatic experience firsthand. They were so enamoured with my story that for Christmas, lo and behold, they gave our family this...





Thanks little bro. You're so awesome.

7 comments:

BusyMamma said...

nice to hear from you again Karen!!
AND Happy Holidays to you and family!

Sorry is a very hard word to pronounce for so many of us!!

Tara R. said...

How nice for your son to be appreciated for his hard work. I bet he keeps those letters for a long time.

Kamis Khlopchyk said...

Those kids were just mean, you don't have to say sorry in Sorry!

Love the letters to your son, that is adorable. They must really like him and that says a lot about him - being a nice lunch monitor would be hard. I would just yell a lot ;)

Merry Christmas my friend!

Unknown said...

Personally, I think those letters say as much about you as they do about him. Well done, both of you.

jmt said...

I used to love board games as a kid. I haven't really been able to get into them with my children as a mother, except for Sorry. :) Love this game. And I am always more than happy to say SO-RRY in the most sarcastic tone possible. Whether it be to hubs or the 3 year old. Brutal. I know.

Kat said...

Yay! You're back! I haven't been here for a while and it is so good to check on you and see you here again. :)

LOVED your Halloween costume! You are awesome!

I'm SO GLAD you didn't say sorry to the big kids. ;) Way to stick to your guns!

imbeingheldhostage said...

I love your Sorry! game :) how funny is that! Careful what other childhood traumas you share with your brother-lol.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin