AFRICAN AMERICAN DAD

My mother and I were talking on the phone the other day and as usual she tried to run a guilt trip on me. She said “oh my boys don’t call me enough.” And “I guess one of four boys loving me is as good as it gets.” I’m used to this from her – she got it from her own mother and now she carries on the tradition like a veteran. The student certainly has become the master. After she stopped with the motherly theatrics we had a, um, funny-ish conversation.

ME – Mom, every time I call you you don’t pay attention to a word I say. That’s why we don’t talk as much as you’d like. Last week you asked how Nana was doing and I said she hasn’t been so great since her partner died this past summer. And so many of her friends seem to be dying too. She has lost a lot of people she cares about in a short time. To this you said “That’s good. She always keeps busy.”

MOM – Maybe I have ADD. Ok, ok, I’m listening now. (I can tell she was smiling over the phone.)

ME – Did I tell you about Dev? He is doing really well in school. His teacher took us aside the other day and asked us how he reads so well. She said his vocabulary is very well developed and he just knows words and understands them. Apparently his comprehension is pretty advanced. She also said that his ability to compute math problems in his head is really impressive. She said that you can ask him all kinds of math questions and he just knows the answers without thinking about it. (Side note: If you have a long commute like we do and use the time wisely good things can happen daily. Dev knows random stuff instinctively because of the word and math problems we do in the car. You can’t write them down in the car so the challenge is to do it in your head, which he does. No TVs allowed in the car only books and conversation and verbal math problems.)

MOM – Computing in his head, huh? I wonder where he got that from.

ME – His parents are pretty smart.

MOM – But you couldn’t compute anything in your head that’s for sure.

ME – Thanks mom.

MOM – It’s true. You weren’t that good.

Careful what you ask for, you might just get it! At least my mother decided to pay attention to the conversation for a change.