My sister needed help with the wood furnace, so I decided to go to her house one day after work this week.
My sister didn’t expect me and I called just a few minutes before I pulled into the driveway. I surprised the kids who were working on homework at the tall, oak kitchen table. My sister was making some dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and parmesan cheese. I went to the basement to look at the wood furnace. I quickly realized that the problem was the thermostat and I went to the truck to pick out a new one for the house. On my way up the stairs, I heard the kids complaining about the cold temperatures in the house. My sister told the kids to stop complaining, but they continued to whine and moan. She told them to put on a sweatshirt or a jacket or a pair of socks. They continued to whine and still were complaining when I walked back into the house ten minutes later. When my sister and I were kids, we didn’t have central heat in the house. Each one of our bedrooms had a small space heater and that was the only thing we had to keep us warm in the middle of the frigid winter nights. If we would have complained to our parents the way my sister’s kids were complaining, they would have sent us to bed without any dinner. My sister lets them get away with acting like brats. When I have kids one day, I’m not going to let them talk to me without respect.