Is it me?

It started as a moan about how bloody useless the boys are with their homework. Tonight they have to find six facts about Midsummer, and as soon as R and his friend O got in the car they started saying they needed to use my computer. I said no. I told R I was sick of him saying he had to use the internet to do homework; he doesn’t, he’s just too damn lazy to look the stuff up. An hour later, being completely sick of their whining I printed three pages of information and told them to read it and note down six facts.

O promptly put the pages in his bag and said his dad would look and tell him what to write later. Grrr, I grumbled silently on R’s behalf because I made him sit at the table and do it immediately.

Then O’s father showed up. He sat down as usual, supped his tea, and looked through O’s bag. He asked what the pages were about. So I explained, and finished by commenting how irritated I was that they always demanded instant access to the net. He asked what else they were expected to use.

I looked at O’s dad in disbelief, ‘What did we use?’

He looked at me blankly.

‘Books!!’

He snorted, ‘Can’t be doing with that, just tell them what they want to know.’

R’s pen stopped writing and he watched, pretending he wasn’t.

‘You think I have time to do all my children’s* homework for them?’ O’s dad didn’t answer. ‘I’m sorry, but considering that their homework gets harder each year, I don’t think it’d be doing them, or me, any favours in the long run.’

‘Well what books are they supposed to use?’ O’s dad said.

‘Well there’s The Atlas, The Planets series stacked in the corner of R’s bedroom, and we have an encyclopaedia Britannica series downstairs.’

‘R might have books like that, but O doesn’t!’

‘So go to the library!’

‘Yeah, right, O wouldn’t know where to start,’ he mumbled and supped some more tea.

At this point I had actually shut up, remembering the time I told O we were going to the library and he refused, because it wasn’t cool. He did accompany us, and I even picked up a library application for him because he enjoyed it so much..

‘Don’t know what the big deal is,’ O’s dad continued, ‘just let them use your computer.’

Grinding my teeth I explained, ‘The big deal is: they had a laptop to use, which they broke**. My computer is not set up for the kids to use***.’

‘Well, I don’t have time to be taking him into town,’

‘But you’re taking him into town tonight,’ I pointed out.

He got up with a sigh, ‘Well there wasn’t a library here when I was a kid, and parents just told kids the answers then.’

‘Rubbish!’ it slipped out, ‘My mother used to drop me off there for the afternoon.’

‘Where? They only built it ten years ago.’

‘In the Royal Square, building on the right, the old library had three floors.’

‘O?’ he called out, ‘Debi’s picking on me, and we’re leaving NOW!’

O came into the kitchen and put his shoes on.

‘Jeeze,’ O’s dad said to O, ‘Imagine having to live here!’

I blinked and bit my tongue.





* His child’s too, as O is with me three nights a week.

** By broke I mean literally – they (R & O) were fighting and wrenched on the power cable, screwing up the connection.

*** This man is not up on computers and I couldn’t be bothered explaining about cookies and eBay/forum/blog accounts, and please note: the children are NOT as ignorant.