Greasy Meat

So, Annie over at What the Woman Wrote nominated me for the three days, three quotes challenge (awhile ago. Sorry Annie!!). I wholeheartedly accept, and embrace this challenge. I also encourage you to check out Annie. She’s a wonderful poet!

I nominate the following bloggers:

Hook, Line, and Inkwell

A Reading Writer

Victo Dolore

Alright guys… Here we go!!

” You don’t believe fat meat is greasy, and a gritty ground is dirty.”

• Anna Belle Henderson

My grandmother had plenty of sayings in her lifetime. Some of which I didn’t understand until I got older. This was one of those sayings.

For those who are clueless to what this phrase means, I shall explain. It means the following:

I told you to stop. Didn’t I? Okay. You don’t think I’ll get you. Do you? Alright then. Do it again!

This is not an encouragement to keep up the behavior you were told to cease in the first place. These are half sentences in which you understood the back half was always “You’re going to get in trouble.” Plenty of geographical regions have different phrases meaning the same thing. My grandmother was from south Texas. She spent much of her lifetime in southern states before she settled in North Dakota. Being a kid (and a northerner), I didn’t understand the context or timing of this comment. I actually thought she said, “You don’t believe fat MEANS greasy.” It made absolutely no sense to me. I mean what does meat have to do with anything you just told me? Bear in mind, she usually said this after she told me to stop doing something. Of course, I kept on doing it. It’s what kids do right? Well, in her generation, you stopped when your parents told you to stop. Not when you felt like it.

The thing that made this phrase stick out (outside of it’s unusual metaphor), is the fact that she followed through on her word. If I didn’t stop, I got in trouble. Punishments were a little easier from her than they were from Granddaddy (my mom will tell you different). However, when Honey (that’s what I nicknamed her) got ready to get you, then that was it. A look. A change in tone. Whatever it was, fear came over me. Fear of impending consequences, and a wishful thought that I should have listened to previous warnings.

For as loving, giving, and caring as my grandmother was, she still meant business. I guess that’s why I’m so critical of parents today. It seems as though they don’t mean business. I get a lot of flack for that because I don’t have children.

Not that I go around thinking, “Oh, you should have done this!!” Kids are individuals, and they are going to be themselves. In that, we have to teach them. I’m finding more excuses being made for behavior, and parents who won’t follow through on their word. They already have short attention spans, and we shove electronics in their face to keep them quiet. Now they don’t have to listen? This thought process can ultimately harm the child.

And that is what irritates me.

The world does not care that little Timmy, well… let’s make it modern, Lucca’s parents didn’t tell him no. It doesn’t care that Lucca has High Achievement Syndrome (that’s not real, I think), so he gets stressed because he didn’t get an upper level position. Coping, consistency, and consequences are not a lesson you want your child to learn outside the home. Those lessons are more beneficial to your child when it comes from you.

One day I was going go the clinic to pay a bill. I passed a mother who was trying to get her 3-4 year old to behave. This is a task because.. well.. kids. I know that. So, mom is struggling trying to get her kid to walk. Toddy Toddler is lying in the grass getting ready to throw a tantrum. I hear the mom start to count. “1! 2! 3!” I thought to myself, “Ahhh… the dreaded three count. You better get up kid.” I expected something to follow three. I mean that’s the purpose of counting in a menacing tone. Alas nothing happened. Instead, this mom just tried to reason with her child which completely defeated the purpose of the three count. Maybe she was tired? Sick? I don’t know. All I know is that should this example be the norm (this is the only time I remember these people), then Toddy is going to have no sense of consequence. That’s a lesson he’ll have to learn in life (i.e. school, employment) that should be taught at home. And, it should be consistent.

In any event, I’m positive that parents love their kids and are raising them as best they can. So, regardless of what I think, let’s all do a better job to raise a respectful generation that knows fat means greasy.