Things NOT to do

Laughter is wonderful isn’t it?  Especially those deep, carry-you-away laughs that you can’t seem to stop.  And the endorphin release?  Yes!  I love laughing.  But I’m a horrible grandmother.  I know – how did I get there from here?  Let me tell you a story…

A couple of weeks ago JD and I went and picked up the grandson’s birthday present.  Grandson was turning 13 and we wanted to make sure to get it in the mail early enough so he’d get it on time.  It also needed to arrive unbroken so we took it to the UPS store and paid more to have it safely packed and shipped than the remote-control helicopter cost in the first place!

Friday after work JD and I were heading out to do errands and grab a bite of dinner.  My cell phone rings and the caller ID says “Private Number”.  Now I don’t usually answer the phone if I don’t know who’s calling, but a few days before I’d been on the phone with the Grandson to be sure the package had arrived when UPS said it would and I knew the other grandparents’ phone number showed up as “Private Number” so I took the call.

After confirming he had reached the correct number, Grandson started off saying something like, “You know that helicopter you got me?”  I acknowledged that I did, expecting him to offer his thanks but his next words were totally unexpected.

“Well, it flew away.”

Dead silence at my end for two or three seconds and then I was laughing – huge, belly-hurting laughs.  And Grandson is continuing in my ear that when he ran inside and told his other Grandma it had flown away she laughed and laughed too which made me laugh all the more.

We are horrible grandparents!  Just horrible.  But whenever I think about that little helicopter* disappearing into the sky I still find myself chuckling.

*The helicopter was intended for indoor use but the other Grandpa wouldn’t let him fly it in the house and Grandson didn’t realize it was meant for indoor ONLY.  Poor kid.

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