A Green Child

A green child I am raising not.

Last evening, I was attending Casey and Hailey's choir performance at the elementary school. As we approached the front of the school, Nathan raced to the door. A lady beat him to it and opened the door and motioned for us to go in. We declined- Nathan wanted to open the door 'magically' with the handicap access button. She turned to him, and told him to just go in. He said, "No," this time getting annoyed.

I told her he just wanted to open it himself. She turned to him again, pleading, "Come on, don't waste electricity, just go in."

By this point, Nathan was on the verge of an all-out meltdown...the kind that turns heads. She said it again, "Just go in! Don't waste electricity!"

He was about to blow. I think she finally realized she would lose this battle and turned to me, "You're not raising a very green child, are you?"

I was stunned. I stood there in disbelief. "No, I'm not!" I replied.

Just then, Randy walked up behind me and answered, "Oh, he's really green- you should see his nose when it runs!"

He's three, for goodness sake! Can't he have a little enjoyment before he grows up and has to be responsible? I don't know what bothers me more- that she would stick her nose in our business like that, or that she is raising her own kids like that. The poor kids.

Don't get me wrong, we teach our kids to turn off lights when they leave a room, and I do my share of conserving power when I serve PB&J for dinner. But I don't appreciate someone else's agenda being pushed on me, much less my child.

I think tonight when she rides past my house on her little bicycle, I'll have the sprinkler on full-blast, watering my driveway.