A Letter of Apology

Dear future daughter-in-law and son-in-law,

I am so sorry. After spending an entire week in close contact with both of my children, I feel I have some apologizing to do.

I have come to the realization that my husband Rick and I have spoiled our children something terrible, so much so that it may make life somewhat difficult for their future spouses.

I claim most of the responsibility for spoiling Joe. I wait on him hand and foot, giving him back problems – the problem is that he’s never bent at the back to pick something up.

He really has to do very few things for himself. The spoiling starts when I make his bed every morning. I know, what am I thinking? I wash and fold his clothes, and then put them in his room in the hopes that he will put them away. But after he trods them all over the floor, I eventually put them away too. I remind him to shower, to put in his contacts, and to brush his teeth. I fix him chips with cheese and salsa and bring him his glass of milk. Then I bring him another. I pretend not to notice he did not eat anything green on his plate and sometimes I count ketchup as his vegetable for the day.

I am embarrassed to say that I do so much for him that I highly doubt he could function on his own. I make sure he has everything he would need before he heads out the door from book bag to water bottle. I’m sorry to say once I had an off day and didn’t notice until he was walking into school in the dead of winter that he forgot his shoes. Sometimes he gets headaches because he forgets to eat. Whoops. My bad.

Perhaps it’s because I find everything goes faster and more efficiently if I do it myself. I do ask him to help me with chores. But, just like his father, he knows if he just waits long enough, mom will get fed up and do it herself. (Rick claims this is because I am on a faster schedule than he is. Right.)

So I apologize in advance to you, my future daughter-in-law. First and foremost, I’m sorry because my son says he is never moving out of our basement (really sorry about that one.) Secondly, he will never put his dirty clothes in the hamper and will leave his wet towel wherever he decides to drop it. I guess he believes the magic clothes fairy will follow him wherever he goes. Yep, he’s hopeless. I hope you are satisfied that he is cute, fluffy, and super funny. I also hope you guys are getting along OK as he pursues his career as a football player, chef, and professional dog walker.

And to my future son-in-law, I blame your future issues on my husband. Many times I have said that Rick has ruined Mandy for all other men. She will never find a man that is as wonderful as her father. Seriously. Give up now. You can’t win this war.

Rick and I go to the store and he will buy something, just because he saw it and thought she might like it. We eat at a restaurant and he suggests we bring the kids sometime because Mandy would really like this or that. We stop to get gas at the station and he brings out a little bag of pickle chips or a mocha latte. When I ask “what’s that?” he says that he just thought Mandy might like a little something (although he also does this for Joe).

Rick makes time in his schedule to drive Mandy wherever she needs to go, even if that someplace is some boy’s baseball game an hour away. And if he does get mad or says no, she says, “but daddy” or “I love you daddy” and he just melts. Good luck with those blue eyes.

Yep, Rick and I are suckers, softies, and wimps. However you want to put it, we are spoiling our kids terribly. They have cell phones, TVs in their rooms, and more clothes than they could ever need. But then again, they have all the love in the world. They know how to work, be a good winner and loser, and say they are sorry and mean it.

We apologize for all their shortcomings. But we know they are loving, forgiving, and kind. We hope someday we can make it all up to you. How about a nice big screen television in the basement?

Sincerely,

C. R. Krush

Daughters by John Mayer

I'm Sorry by Brenda Lee