We have taught them to say thank you.
We have taught them to hold doors for strangers.
We have taught them to give back to those who need help.
But, I'm afraid we have failed them.
Failed them miserably.
I keep trying to teach them.
Especially the elder child.
But, she's having none of it.
She says over and over "I can't do it!!"
It being...
she can't tell the time on a clock without numbers.
This clock...
My chili pepper clock.
A gift from my old roommate Bill from years ago.
It has moved everywhere that I have moved.
It has hung on various walls in various cities.
It's been hung on white walls, brown walls, green walls, coffee colored walls.
And my kids don't know how to read it.
It's the only clock in our living room.
The room we spend the most time in.
My daughter will sit below it in the big comfy brown recliner that used to belong to Uncle Jeff.
And she'll ask me "Mom, what time is it?"
"Look behind you" I'll reply.
"There's a clock behind you."
"But I can't read that clock!"
"Try!" I'll plead with her.
"Nooooooo!"
So she'll push a button on the television remote to see the time on the big screen she's been watching.
Or she'll get up.
Get up to leave the room to find a digital clock.
Or to find her iPad to push the big middle button so that the time pops up in big, bold, digital numbers.
And I cry.
Silent tears fall slowly down my face.
A face that prefers non-digital clocks.
A face that prefers the art of chili pepper clocks that make me think and allow me to make a cognitive decision on my own.
Sigh.
Where did we go wrong?
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