"Life's Like That"

I was seventy years old and babysitting my little grandchildren. The little guy, Christoph, was three years old, and his sister Bobbita was four. She was the first awake and came downstairs for breakfast, and after we ate we each sat in the living room where she quickly fell back asleep. I got up from my seat to go upstairs quietly and check on her brother who was still in bed, and while I was gone Bobbi woke up and sat all of her dolls on the cushion I had been sitting on.

I woke her up gently and said, “Bobbita, could you please put your toys away so that grandma can have her seat back?” She refused. I said, “listen, when you are seventy you will want to rest as well.” She said, “no I won’t, I’ll be working and you’ll be taking care of my children!”

I then woke up Christoph and got him washed and dressed before I gave him breakfast, because it was better that way for me. Chris, at three years, would give me a hard time, saying, “My mom and dad don’t make me get dressed first, and they are the boss!” I said, “When I am here, I am the boss, and you are just small potatoes.”

The next time I babysat there Christoph informed me again that his mother and father were “the boss,” and I said, “Yes Chris, they are, and what are you?” He pulled down his lip, looked up at me and said, “I’m potatoes.”

-Credit: Gramma McFloss.