Whaaat?!
Oh yes. Calling from another room. That’s what many
of us do, within our family relationships. My mother despised the ‘Calling
from another room’… As well, my
husband said he didn’t like it so much. But somehow, he did not remark his
disdain for it till our children were nearly teenagers, and us nearing the
thirty-year mark of our marriage.
One day about six years ago, I sat and wondered, ‘When
exactly did my husband start despising the Calling from another room trick?
Was it after my Mom had passed? I thought more. No. My brain replied. So,
it was after the turn of the century for sure. Hmmmmmm. When was it? And what
was it that made it so unpalatable to him?’ I pondered. I can say I don’t really like it
either. However, the excuse for the use of the Calling from another room
trick. Yes, I have one.
My non-condemnation of the use of Calling from another
room trick, is that… Well… with the teenagers I’m trying to give them their
space. Especially, if we’ve had a heavy discussion. I want them to be alone to
reflect. Or to perhaps call a friend and not have me sticking my nose further
into their complaints about how tough I am as a parent. That I give them. So
later at the dinner table, we can lighten the load of the same discussion
without the same emotion.
I think the Calling from another room trick, was
perhaps invented by a mom who either needed assistance with one child who was the
youngest and wanted to make certain no other of her children were up to no
good. Or calling for her husband (This is before the phone was invented, perhaps.)
because the potbelly stove needed more wood to be chopped. As he had ignored
her, just prior to going out with his buddies to the O.K. Corral for a few
drinks.
Or it could be that the wife had joined a new knitting club
four acres away, At Suzie McKinley’s home. And he’d call out when their three
youngin’ ages 4,6 and 7 were out of control with a game he had invented. As he
felt his wife was being silly and too tough on their children not allowing them
to play pretend tied up and tortured. This was to replicate the now politically
incorrect idea of enslaving another person, just because you could. I really think
that is how the Calling from another room trick got started. A helpless husband
misusing the Calling from another room trick. And that my friends, is
why it is so now despised.
Yep. I love it when I resolve such intrinsic issues of daily
family life. And I now use the trick, Calling
from another room to find out what our children (when one is not at
college) want to drink with their dinner as I set the table. ---Jody-Lynn
Reicher
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