...and other myths dear to the heart of non-parents...
"Hey, mom. You want some tea?"
"That would be lovely, sweetie. Thanks."
A cup of hot tea on a chilly January evening. A perfect way to enjjoy some companionable mother-daughter bonding.
Rebekah fills the kettle, flicks the switch... and wanders off. Five minutes later, when I've refilled the almost-boiled-dry kettle and I'm sipping my own tea, she wanders back.
"Oh, sorry mom! I meant to do that."
And of course she did. Two points for good intentions, two for generous impulse, zero for follow-through. She still comes out ahead. This is normal mother accounting, which, of course, accounts for the successful continuation of the species.
She wanders into the kitchen to make her own tea.
"This tea looks weird, mom."
Even given that the girl puts more milk in her tea than I do, it is awfully pale.
"Looks like you didn't leave the bag in long enough. Go let it steep some more."
She drops the bag back in... and wanders off. Ten minutes later, she's back in the kitchen, nuking some heat back into a stone-cold up of tea.
"It still tastes weird."
"It's probably too strong now."
"No, it's weak as can be, and, ugh."
It is still oddly pale, and it does taste weird. Sort of familiar, very weak and... just not right. Huh.
"Where did you get it?"
"From the normal box of tea on the shelf in that cupboard." She gestures vaguely in the right direction.
"Well, that's just weird."
"I guess I got a dud bag."
It isn't till this morning, when I'm removing the two used tea-bags from the little ceramic dish on the stovetop, that the mystery is solved. Let's see if you can solve it, too. One glance at both teabags was all it took me, but I threw them out before I thought to take a picture for you all. Silly me. So I took another one instead. Let's test our adult powers of observation, supposed to be so inferior to those of our "observant" offspring.
Here is a picture of my tea and coffee cupboard. Which do you think would be "the normal box of tea"?
What's that you say? The large blue box of VISIBLE teabags on the bottom left? You think? The large OPEN box of VISIBLE teabags? The one where you just have to reach in and pull out a bag?
Ha! Shows what you know. (Me, too.) No, apparently the "normal box of tea" would be the small green closed box on on the upper left. The one you have to pull off the shelf to open, and unroll the inner liner before you can even see the teabags. That one.
The box which contains green tea, in bags. Decaffeinated green tea, no less. Which she drank with milk.
Bleah.
So observant.
So true. Although, I would also point that particular argument to my husband as well. Since he spent ten minutes arguing with me last night over whether on not we had ketchup. Despite telling him the exact!! location in the fridge, it took me getting up and handing it to him for him realize that it had not indeed fallen into a black hole.
So glad to realize that I will continue like this forever...
Posted by: Dani | January 30, 2009 at 11:34 AM