Our final night in Tennessee. DQ and her troupe had moved into the loft of our cabin. Mom was already snoring away in the downstairs bedroom. i was sacked out on the sofa. It had been a rather eventful weekend, and i had a lot of shit to munch over inside my head. Despite being very tired, i couldn’t sleep.
i didn’t want to eavesdrop. In fact, i put a pillow over my head at one point to try to block out the sound of the voices drifting down from the upstairs loft. DQ, BJ and the little critter, DQ, III were camped in the double bed, while DQ, III and Doogie had settled on the twin bed and trundle-bed. It was almost midnight, and the four-year old was asleep right away. It was close quarters up there for the five of them. They were trying to keep their voices down, but the acoustics of the cabin made it impossible for me to stop listening.
At first? They were horsing around — BJ giving Doogie grief for ripping a fart, while the rest of them giggled. DQ complaining that BJ had stolen the sheets. Some comments i couldn’t hear, followed by more shushed giggles. They were camping. This is just what you do in close quarters.
It took a turn for the more serious. DQ explaining to her seventeen year old daughter that she needed to tone down her posts on facebook.
DQ: I know you’re crazy about JT, but some of the things you post… It’s too much! Do you want to be one of those girls? Everyone can see it.
DQ, III: It’s not that bad! I’ve seen a lot worse stuff on facebook.
DQ: Just because your friends post TMI doesn’t make it right!
BJ: Tweetering? Is that what it’s called? You gotta tweeter that you love him or else he won’t know? You’re just making sure everyone else knows!
DQ: We took away your phone and internet before, and if you keep posting that “I love you, Baby-Boy” crap, we can take it away again.
Parenting. Honest-to-God parenting. And a family. A family that enjoys being together.
Maybe not my approach to parenting – and maybe not my priorities. But they are engaged. Tracking. Paying attention. Being adults.
When we were all packing up after breakfast at the Gathering Cabin, we were sorting out shared costs for the weekend. i paid for the three cabins in advance. Once I had the final body count, i did a straight calculation to figure out what folks would need to contribute — and it worked out to $40 per adult per night stayed, with no charge for the kids. Since the younger cousins (DQ’s generation) tend to have less disposable income, i offered them all a bit of a discount.
DQ said she’d brought cash, and was prepared to pay for Doogie, too. i told her Doogie was covered – the least i could do for having made a rather serious misjudgment. Rather than take the discounted rate, she paid me in full.
pic found here
Trailer Park Refugee 