Messy Mamahood


April 27, 2010

Run-in with the lamp post

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I just didn't expect it to be "sooner." My 14-year-old had his first wreck. Yep, took out the lamp post in front of our house and cracked the bumper on my Jeep Liberty. $450 to replace the bumper and no idea what to do about the lamp post which is bent to hell with electrical wires exposed to the elements. Anyone know a good electrician?

Well, I let Taege drive home from his friend's house and he was doing really well. Didn't even hug the curb like he usually does. The girls were in the backseat and thought it was awesome that big brother was behind the wheel. He turned left onto our street. I told him to slow down and turn into our driveway, forgetting he hadn't done this before. He over-turned the wheel to avoid the huge sycamore tree to the left of the driveway (good move), but turned too much to the right and forgot to brake (bad move) and ran right over the lamp post. Thankfully, he missed the garage door or the front of the house. "Oh, God!" he shouted. "Taege!!!" the girls yelled. I just kept saying, "It's okay, it's okay." At least no one was hurt.

We got out of the car and I got in to back it up. Taege looked at me through the windshield after he saw what he had done. Fear. "What is Mom going to do to me?" I could tell he was thinking. Then Blane started hollering at him, "Look at Mommy's car! Look what you did! That was horrible! You're a horrible driver! Horrible!" She sounded like an angry little mother, so I calmly kept telling Taege it was okay, that accidents happen. I think Keile was in shock. Blane continued her tirade, which became rather humorous, so I started laughing. I couldn't stop. Yes, my bumper was cracked, yes, the lamp post was ruined, but those are just material things. And again, no one was hurt. The neighbor across the street saw the whole thing. He just smiled and shook his head. He probably thought I had lost it because I was laughing so hard.

As we walked into the house, I asked Taege if it had scared him. He replied, "No, it's just that I did so much damage. More than just the two plates I broke at Dad's house." Ya think?

4 comments:

Wendy Irene said...

Hi Kenyon! Thanks so much for joining Moms with Blogs on ModernMom! It is a great site and it is wonderful to have you in the group. I hope it brings new faces to your blog :) Have a wonderful day!

But I digress... said...

Having a parent in the media is never fun for a kid. Every screw-up is immortalized for the ages. Thank goodness you don't have a nationwide radio talk show.

This would explain some of Ron Howard's behavior, having Opie's foibles laid bare every week. Remember the time he pinched Betsy Lou on the @** after school & got smacked on national TV? (Well done, Opie.) Same deal with Howard the recidivist who finally snapped, and very justifiably so.

(P.S. Whaaat, no photos?)

But I digress...

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of my first time out driving. My mom took me around in the neighborhood because she thought it would be perfectly fine and little traffic.

Well, I took a right turn (a whopping two blocks from home) and didn't straighten out after the turn, thus driving us right into a sewer grate but fully avoiding the lightpost and tree.

The tire went flat almost immediately and the wheel was scratched, but not bend. My mom called my dad, who walked over to help us and what did he say?

"Well, she's gotta learn to change a tire sometime, and it looks like it's time."

Just don't do to your kiddos what my mom did in her oh-so-subtle way to attack high way driving.

"Ok, so as you turn here you're going to want
to accelerate."

"Why?"

"Because we're getting on the high way."

Unknown said...

"But I digress..." my son is actually the one who asked me to post this story on my blog. He thought it would be a funny post. The kid's got a great sense of humor. :0)

Wendy - thanks for the welcome! Glad to be in the group.

Stephanie - great story, and I can't believe your mom was so brave. After our lamp post run-in, I'm letting the driver's ed instructor handle the highway thing. Ugh! Scary!