Ben’s parents were visiting Portland last week. It was a beautifully simple visit: just time spent sitting by the fire, putting together puzzles with Nora and working on sewing projects at the dining room table.
At one point, we had to temporarily clear all the sewing stuff off the table so we could eat. The sewing machine was placed on the floor behind my mother-in-law, Debbie. She commented that it was still on, and she hoped that someone wouldn’t step on the pedal and send the machine into fits. I shrugged, thinking Nora was the only risk of this happening, and she was on the other side of the table.
We all chatted as we finished up eating when we began to hear a low mechanical hum.
“What’s that noise,” Debbie asked. “Do you guys hear that?”
It was not a sound my house usually makes, so I looked under the table. Debbie had her foot just barely touching the pedal of the sewing machine, causing it too hover in the ready-for-action-but-not-quite-driving-the-needle-down mode.
“You have your foot on the pedal,” I said, and we all laughed that she had been the one to set it off, after pointing out the danger in the first place.
A few more minutes passed and Nora suddenly stomped her foot on the floor and then said, “What’s that noise?”
We all paused, then broke into near hysterics as we realized that Debbie was being mocked by her four-year-0ld granddaughter. She made a noise herself, then asked what the heck it was.
“Well, what do you guys think — is mockery nature or nuture?” I asked.
Debbie was pretty sure it was nuture — though she blames her son — not me. (Which is not entirely fair, I assure you.)
What do you guys think: nature or nuture? Have your kids ever mocked their grandparents?