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| BrendanMcKillip.com brendan mckillip's daily journal |
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daily journal
I'm Getting Old I returned home late Monday night and found Ian was still up churning away on his homework. He had had basketball practice after school and more than his usual load of homework, consequentially he was up beyond his regular bedtime trying to finish up his school work. Ian is easily distracted, so sometimes it will take extraordinary efforts from Heather and me to keep him on task when there is a deadline involved. In Monday�s case, that deadline was trying to get him finished and into bed before 10 o�clock. He had wandered down into the kitchen and started asking a question about something that had no relevance to his homework, school, or sleeping � so I cut him off and planned on redirecting right back upstairs with a firm declaration that he was running out of time. I don't recall exactly what I said, but it was along the lines of, "That isn't important right now. You need to hunker down, get focused, and finish your homework so you can get to bed. It's already 9:30." Ian stopped dead and looked at me. "'Hunker down', what does that mean", he asked while giving me one of his more confused looks. "Hunker down? Who says that?" I dismissed his questions with a wave of my hand and sent him back upstairs to his room to (finally) finish. While he was climbing the stairs I started thinking myself. Where did I come up with 'hunker down'? I can't remember ever using that phrase before. Even if I had, it's not really that strange of phrase, is it? Why did Ian seem so confused by it? I've heard that phrase used for years. Then I suddenly felt old. It was like when my sister called me out for naturally and conversationally using one of our Dad's favorite phrases. Talking like your dad means you're turning into your dad, which means you're getting old. I don't care how cool you may think your dad is; he's always old. Talking like him is one of the first steps in getting old. Now with my little turn of a phrase, not only was I feeling old because I was obviously using the vernacular of old people but my son was recognizing my oldness and highlighting the generational gap in his confused face. I guess it's going to be all downhill from here on out. Jeepers, this sucks. posted by Brendan | 1:25 PM | permanent link |
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