Saturday, August 2, 2008

Grated Feet: A Lesson on Aging


My 9 year old son, Jacob, has always been an insightful, intelligent type of child. Even as a young tyke, he was not one to fall for distraction tactics or psychological twists. "Oh, honey, you're crying - you hurt your foot? Let's put an ice pack on it - you'll be ok. Hey! Look at that butterfly over there!" Nope, never worked - "One Track Willie" - my husband and I used to lovingly refer to him as (between the two of us of course). "The Great Distracter" also comes to mind, which we used when he was trying to pull the psychological games on US - but that's another story. Anyway, back to the insightful part. A few days back during one of our many CVS trips, Jacob noticed a display rack filled with a foot care product. As we left the store, "Hey Mom," he commented. "There was this thing in there called a Pedi-egg." At this point, I can see the corners of his mouth beginning to tug and his eyes appear as if he is going to start laughing at any moment. "It's this thing shaped like an egg and it has like a cheese grater (starts revving up a laugh as he's talking) on one side and you grate your feet off with it!" (is now in a full blown laugh) At this point, I start laughing because I realize how strange that must seem to him; a totally foreign concept! As we got in the van and calmed our giggles, I went on to explain to him that as you get older, your feet don't stay all smooth and shiny, like when you are younger. And some people just "grate" all that off. Well, the idea of the cheese grater just didn't seem so funny anymore. Matter of fact, I think he was now either thoroughly grossed out or lost in his own foot grating visual since there was not another word said about this topic. Let's skip ahead a few days. Yesterday morning when Jacob started waking up, I laid in his bed and watch a little tv with him. We always enjoy those little times, but Jacob never wants them to end. Eventually, I had to get up and get a few things done. He thought it was funny to try and hold my arms so I wouldn't get up. Finally, I started laughing and told him that I had to get up so I could go grate my feet. Oh.My.Gosh. We both started laughing so hard that I thought we would wet our pants. After the cackle session, Jacob said, "That was REALLY funny mom, but it's sort of a bad joke for you because if you have to go grate your feet, (now here he starts getting quieter and quieter and slower and slower with each word) it..means...you....are.....getting......older." At first he thought he insulted me, but I laughed and gave him a nudge to let him know it was ok. Life's lesson on foot grating was learned. Isn't it great when things come full circle?

4 comments:

~michelle pendergrass said...

Oh man. That's hilarious. And I can hear his giggle. Which makes me laugh.

Guess it's official. We're old.

Heidi Stone said...

Hey! I saw your question about what to do with expired coupons on MSM and was too lazy to see if anyone had answered it for you, but here's a link:

http://www.ocpnet.org/ (Overseas Coupon Program)

p.s. I'm a Hoosier too! :)

Junkers On The Loose said...

Great Shadow Shot!! So glad to have found your blog! Your story about feet grating is wonderful!!!!! Thank you for sharing your precious time spent with your son!!
Smiles, Lorie

Toni said...

Thanks for reading guys. Sometimes these little story treasures are just too good to keep to ourselves :)