Days Like These by Sue Margolis

Author:Sue Margolis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-10-10T12:06:13+00:00

CHAPTER

eleven

Sunday is snow cold, the sky a doom-laden gray. I’m all for spending the afternoon watching a movie and toasting marshmallows. Mum says we’re out of marshmallows. The kids say they’ve seen everything.

“Since when did that bother you?”

Since they got bored with being stuck inside for most of the weekend because of bad weather.

“When I poked my head outside earlier,” Mum says, “it was bitter. Talk about March winds. . . . Believe me, you’re better off staying in.”

The wind word is music to my grandchildren’s ears. Yay. Let’s go to the park and fly the kite. The crêpe man will be there in his van and we can warm ourselves up with pancakes and hot chocolate. I’m aware that the kids are going stir-crazy and need a run, so I give in. They rush to get their coats. I remind them that they’re going to need extra sweaters as well as hats and gloves.

Mum says she’s going to take a nap. I hear her plodding up the stairs, oomphing and sucking in her breath. Her knees are bad today. Even so, part of me envies her. I want an excuse to be horizontal, eyes shut, for an hour or so.

The events of the last few weeks are catching up with me. Last night after I went to bed, I lay staring at the ceiling, fretting about the kids’ behavior and what to do about it. What if my diagnosis, not to mention my mother’s, was wrong? Suppose Sam and Rosie gave up a load of after-school activities and nothing changed? Moreover, if Sam really was determined to carry on seeing Bogdan—who returned after I berated him, just as my mother had predicted, and was being only slightly less horrible—I couldn’t see his behavior improving anytime soon. The pressure on Sam would be just the same.

Then it occurred to me that I could be overreacting. Maybe it would be more sensible to find strategies to help the kids deal with their stress rather than remove it altogether. Hadn’t Tanya mentioned some amazing yoga teacher who worked with kids? Was it really necessary for them to abandon the after-school activities that their parents believed were so important? This led me to another thought: I was interfering. I had to remind myself—not for the first time—that it was none of my business how Abby and Tom chose to raise their children.

On the other hand, when I suggested to the kids that they give up some of their commitments, they couldn’t wait. More to the point, I pretty much promised to make it happen. I couldn’t go back on that. I didn’t know what to do—or say—for the best. I didn’t want to put more pressure on Abby and Tom. It was the reason I was putting off Skyping them.

• • •

We’re not the only people who have decided to fly kites. Despite the cold and gray, the park is full of mums, dads and overexcited kids and dogs shouting and barking and getting caught up in kite strings.

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