I didn't see puberty coming. It came too fast! Two of my four sons are going through it. From the cracking voices to the occasional comments about something changing, growing, aching, or downright annoying! They are content one day seated in front of their gaming devices and angry the other wanting to beat each other up. Dull days are few and far in between in my household especially this past Halloween. The devil was busy! Leading up to the holiday, the atmosphere seemed tense. You felt like something was about to happen but you didn't quite know what it was. The unseen and unexplained challenging moments in a day tend to show up sometimes with a clue to brace yourself, but not always those full blown signs to take cover.
Let me start by saying that Halloween is not a holiday I like or celebrate, but this year was different. I felt pressured by the children the night before when they were rattling the door knob while I took a shower. They were making random noises to jolt a scare. These boys were all-too-excited for no apparent reason, and I simply didn't connect the dots at first, oh yea, Halloween.
Well, I wasn't taking their scare tactics lightly, oh no! The tables were going to turn like they did on Friday the 13th back in 2017. Back then they tried to scare me again, waiting for me to come out the bathroom while one son yelled at the door in a creepy voice, "Hey Mom, are you in there pooping, ha, ha, ha!" You can check the short movie out, their fear was real, see here. Well if I was, I wouldn't have a pleasant bowel movement of peace and quiet, now would I? I came out that bathroom to a pitch black house just the light from the bathroom shined in the hallway. Uh oh. So they wanted to play games in the dark, well let's begin! Let's just say by the time I was finished with them, they didn't try anything else again until this year.
October 30th I made sure that I moved through the house like a track star. All lights cut off, doors semi-cracked, and the sounds of thumping and bumping with a periodic pause in between. They thought they were ready for me with their creepy music and their flickering lights. A loud "booh" and a scream, sent them running in the dark. Of course, it was a dangerous game, someone could get hurt. Well there was a lesson to be learned when a child attempts to scare his mother while at the same time just having fun.
I caught the youngest coming up the stairs. I laid low and watched him through the staircase. He looked up and there I was with a loud, "Booh!" He tripped down the stairs and caught himself by catching the rail. The middle son decided to boldly walk over to the basement door assuming that I may not be there, that was just too obvious so he thought. He opened that cracked door, didn't he know from watching thrillers you don't go to a dark opened door? There I was, "Booh!" Shook him enough and he too took off running. Then there was my second eldest standing at about 6'2" so he thought he had more courage than them all, well he didn't! He practically knocked his brothers over running to the bathroom to lock himself in. The eldest son wasn't a part of the action he has his own place now, "lucky" or I mean blessed for him--lol.
For years, I told these kids about Halloween, but sometimes you have to show them, better than you can tell them. I'm grateful that no one got hurt.
Nicholl McGuire
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