that darned middle son again

This is probably one of my favourite photos of him. It's 2 and half years old and he was still smoking and hadn't had his jaw surgery but that pose is so typical of him. He was going through a rather bleak period in his life and this day I had taken him for the first in a series of counselling sessions which would help turn his life around. I was playing with my (then) new phone and trying to work out the camera. I held it up to my face like a real camera back to front. This was the "I can't believe you just did that, mother" pose. It's also how he looks when he is breaking up with laughter. Which he does a lot more of these days.

Yesterday we got a phone call from Mr Independent asking us to help him choose a lawn mower. The new place they are in has a small garden with a little bit of lawn. Not enough to require a petrol driven mower and he was looking for a push mower. We met him at Bunnings and discussed the pros and cons of those on offer with a helpful Bunning's bloke. And Two decided to get the flymo which, whilst most expensive, has the best name and would last longer. And then I decided to pay for it. Which resulted in a bit of shoving at the self serve check out. I won and Two became white lipped with anger. I've never seen anyone white lipped with anger but I now know what it means!! He calmed down very quickly and we explained to him that we want to help, we admire and and are so proud of his financial independence on crap wages and that he could put the money he had earmarked for the lawnmower towards getting a decent bbq. And I won't pay for that one.

A valuable lesson learned. Sometimes our children really don't want our help.

But I'm glad I did it anyway. He loves the lawn mower and has forgiven his mother.