A Gold Star For Me

We’ve been having a lovely and relaxing weekend. Yesterday I slept in. When I stumbled downstairs at almost-9 am, the rest of my family was laughing at me. They’d been up for a couple of hours. They’d been living their lives, doing stuff, all while I was sleeping. . . and sleeping.

I was sputtering, indignant: “You know, I wake up early almost all the time. And I want to sleep this late–heck, I want to sleep later than this—every day. But I don’t. Because I am taking care of you and trying to be with my beloved family. You shouldn’t be laughing at me for sleeping late today. You should be giving me gold stars and praise and high fives for all the days that I don’t sleep this late!”

A few minutes later, J presented me with this little beauty:

Oh, sure. She was teasing. But I decided to wear it with pride. I put it on and kept my Dignity all morning, and then wore it to Afrim’s for M’s soccer game. Parking was crazy, so I ended up circling the lot while everyone else went inside. When J saw me walking in, still wearing her gold star, she was appalled. She removed it and taped it onto my backpack. “But what about my special star?” I asked. “Aren’t you still proud of me for waking up?” This is my Parent Superpower. I am not afraid to be embarrassing. I try to save it for emergency situations, but sometimes it’s just fun to tease them.