Devilish disguises

Okay, since I posted a story from brandon's childhood I thought I would post a funny story from mine that my Grandpa Minson sent me a few years ago and then recently again. It explains a lot about my character (annoying!) (just kidding) Some people who know me well have described it as a fire that is burning up underneath me and makes me want to MOVE. I just wanted to be all up in people's business. It was all out of love I assure you. But I'll let you decide I guess. (Chris is my mom, Christine)

Just rediscovered this letter from 1992. It's amazing what parental skills we taught our daughters. What do you think? Love, Dad and Gpa Minson



p.s. Would like a response from Jacqueline and Daniel. How did you both turn out so well? I don't think I would share this with Brandon, Jacqueline. It is too early in your marriage.











August 30, 1992





Dear Family,



I’m recording a couple of stories for posterity. Chris and Karen and Geri and Lynette may never record these so I’m volunteering.



Steve, Julie, Kiel, Karen, Terry, Samantha, Tanner, Lynette, Cabrina and I all went to see “Oklahoma” at an outdoor theater at Occidental College a week ago Saturday. On the way home Lynette was sharing her appreciation & respect for our whole family and specifically talked about what good mothers, Geri, Karen and Chris are.



I thought I’d pass on the complements so I started by calling Chris. Chris really laughed when she heard it. She said, “I’m glad Lynette isn’t here to see me now. I just got through dragging Jacqueline down the street, yelling at her all the way cause she had been such a rotten kid. I’ve put her in her room and am going to keep her there until she turns nineteen. I also told Lachelle that she was grounded until Jacqueline became a better kid.



“Lachelle couldn’t quite understand the logic of all this and cried to me, “What are you grounding me for, you’re the Mother.



Chris’s best friend in the neighborhood came over shortly after this saying, “Chris, are you alright? Did you really ground Lachelle until Jacqueline shapes up? Would you like to borrow my book on positive discipline?



Chris’s response was, in effect, “I don’t want to hear about positive discipline. What I need is a vacation.”



I asked Chris what led up to this crisis and she told how Jacqueline had pushed, punched and pinched all the kids in the car on the way home from primary and that as a result she was sent to her room until she could be good.



She sneaked out of her room shortly after that and went to one of the neighbors where she pinched a little girl and made her cry. Lachelle came running home to tell on her. Chris said to Lachelle, “What are you telling me for? I can’t raise Jacqueline all by myself. You’ve got to help me. Go back and make her straighten up.



Before Lachelle could respond to that, Jacqueline had migrated to another house where she punched another little girl and made her cry. The little girl’s older sister came running to tell Lachelle about the latest infraction. Then Chris demonstrated that even good Mom’s have reason to yell at their kids in front of the whole neighborhood.



When I shared this with Lynette and talked about holding Lachelle responsible for the behavior of Jacqueline, she laughed and shared how they are telling Cabrina, “If Tucker starts crying or yelling, we are going to hold you responsible.”



I had to laugh at that and told her how we used to say almost the same thing to Ron about Robert and how Ron used to hate it.



Lynette said, “I’d better remind Ron of that because he is even worse than I am about using this tactic.”



Then I called Sue and added an extra dimension by telling her that on the other hand, Steve enjoyed telling the younger kids what to do and I had to occasionally remind him that he wasn’t the Father - I was the Father.



Sue has a different approach to this problem though. She tells her kids, “Look, I’m the boss, not you. I waited a long time to earn the right to be the boss and now you’ll have to wait until it’s your turn.”



I was then sharing this all with Karen who assured me that Jacqueline was really going to be a great kid and that she would grow out of it. She said “Look how sweet Tamara is now. She grew out of it."



Then she shared another Jacqueline story.

Evidently Travis, who is a little younger than Jacqueline, had a toy she wanted. So she took it away from him. Travis’s response was to kick some water on her and turn and walk away.



Karen immediately thought, “Oh no Travis, don’t turn your back on Jacqueline.” Sure enough, Jacqueline ran after him, punched him in the back and knocked him to the ground.



I’m enclosing a picture of Jacqueline for those of you who may not know her well. She looks like a little angel, and she does demonstrate the characteristics of an angel of our Father in Heaven. (On the other hand, the devil has a few angels of his own and - - - !) But like Karen, I believe that she will choose the right side,
eventually.
In the meantime, we may be hearing a few more Jacqueline stories which will be good to record so that we can read them to her children at the right moment.