COLORFUL, OR ANTI-BEIGE, POETICS

Like Moi was saying, why would I let a 14-year-old boy rule moi life anyway? So, after I "dutifully apologized" for signing off with "Love, Mom" in an email to Michael, I picked up the phone and:

Moi: Hi.

The Hubby: Yes?

Moi: Do me a favor.

The Hubby (with a sigh quickly bitten off--why is that, Hub?): Yes?

Moi: Email Michael, say, a Congratulations over his latest math score...

The Hubby: Okay.

Moi: Wait, that's not all. You have to sign off with "Love, Dad"

After an explanation, the Hubby saw the wisdom of, uh, not letting a 14-year-old boy rule his parents' lives, and did as I requested.

The Hubby later forwarded Michael's reply (he's doing very well with English-acquisition, but the occasional linguistic fumbles are to be expected):

From: Michael Pollock
To: Pollock, Thomas R.
Subject: RE: my test dotay.

Dad, whaen you are sending me an E-mail. Don't use love.
I also warn you as mom.
Michael

To which the Hubby shared his reply: "LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. And today is misspelled as is when. BUT I LOVE YOU ANYWAY."

So Michael, later that evening, was complaining to me about his loving Dad. I finally asked him why he has such a problem with the "love" sign-off. He succinctly replied, "Mom! It's not cool!"

Cool? As adolescently-defined?! Snort. I simply snorted at him, then turned back to my cooking (yes, I was cooking. I was frying ham. If you have constructive criticism--like, Ham should be baked, oh my!--keep it to yourself.) Which is to say, since serving Michael ham, I've been mentally going through my email address book, considering whom I can recruit to email Michael with the sign-off

Love,
_____

That's what happens when you get a poet for a Mom. It becomes hard to abide by the parenting advice I got yesterday from one of the carpool moms. She noted that it's been suggested that, when it comes to parenting teens, the parent would be well-advised to

                  WEAR BEIGE AND LIE LOW

Well, what do you think the odds are of the Chatelaine becoming ... beige?

Hint: Take a look at my book covers on left column of the blog. (And while at it, order some of them to experience the importance of COLOR(!) in one's life!) E.G., our mutual autobiography: