Unwelcome Penises
I made a special Saturday breakfast the other day that I was particularly proud of, strawberry blueberry crepes with a side of sausage. yum! as I was preparing the cream cheese filling, it dawned on me that we never seem to have enough of that creamy goodness. suddenly the idea to add a little plain yogurt came to me. I plopped some in, stirred it, and tasted it. still yummy. so I added a touch more and mixed it in. double the creamy goodness! I was so pleased with myself, I bragged to my husband about my brain blast as I was finishing up the crepes. as we sat down to eat, my teenage daughter staggered out of bed and sat at the table. she seemed uncharacteristically indifferent to the morning feast. she took a pensive bite and looked at me with her 14 year old judgment and asked, " Is there yogurt in this?" "Yes." I replied proudly. "It's off-putting." is her response.
Well, that wasn't the reaction I was expecting to berry crepes. with a year and a half of therapy under my belt, I saw no reason to react. so I just happily ate my breakfast. as everyone was dishing up a second serving, I commented that I thought she didn't like the cream cheese filling. she said she just wasn't expecting the yogurt flavor, but it was good. Her dad and I were both taken aback and explained that 'off-putting' has a very negative connotation.
This is where it seems a bit more therapy could have helped.
I told her when I think of something 'off putting' I think of the time I tried painting in the park and a guy with shortcut off jeans sat down to chat with me and his unmentionables peaked out of the fringe of his shorts. We both noticed, he tucked it in and stayed and continued talking. "Now that's off putting!"
after groans and laughter (groans from her) (laughter mostly me). I apologized for the unwelcome penis story.
Then dad chimes in, "You want to talk about unwelcome penises?!" and he starts in about the time we accidentally happened upon a nude beach. I immediately knew the incident he was referring to and started laughing hysterically and then interjecting. so now we are both telling the story of the nude hippie sitting on his feet laying back sunning his mini me, and how we tried to avoid him so he got up and walked toward us and rinsed off in a little waterfall.
At the end of the tale, we both said, "Now that's off-putting!"
We closed with a reminder of how the right words are important for good communication and counted the conversation as a homeschool lesson.
I think she might want different parents.