'Yer Age

Whenever I catch myself doing or saying things that when I was a kid I swore I would never do, I feel like such an Old Hagggis. For example, my nephew is nearly 20 and I still treat him like a baby. Since I was the baby of the family I HATED being told I was too young for something or treated like I was a complete idiotic and naive child.(I'm still treated that way and I still hate it BTW) When my nephew was born, I was 12 and felt completely grown up so it seems that I would probably feel more sisterly towards him than like an Auntie but that's not the case. He is to me, the son I would have asked for if I had had the powers. I try very much to regard him as a grown up but it's impossible. Last week, he came over for lunch and I found myself reminding him 3 times not to touch the pan because it was still hot as if he were a total dumbass without the skills to notice that on his own. I still refer to him as "Little B--" which is what we called him as a baby since he shares his father's name and his father was then called "Big B--" Recently I asked him if it bothered him that we(meaning mostly me) still called him that and if he knew that we would most definitely be calling him "Little B--" even when he was 80. Didn't bother him and no, he said he likes it. This was funny for me because I've told my family several times if anyone tries to refer to me in one of the nicknames they came up with, no one would get an answer from me. I will only answer to the name I was baptised with thank you very much. But that's the difference between he and I. If he told me it bothered him, I would make a better effort to stop.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic-that's a post for another day. For sure, one of the things I SWORE, PROMISED, SET IN STONE FOR ALL TIME that I would NEVER do was utter any sentence that began with the words,"When I was your age......." Because when I was young enough to be so cursed as to have to listen to those kinds of sermons I still remember thinking how much I could give a flying rat's ass about "yer age," and what everyone did or didn't do at "yer age." Or what everyone had or didn't have at "yer age." I didn't give a featherweight's care about who had to walk to school, stay after school, clean the school, make dinner, couldn't wear their hair the way they wanted, got slapped if they talked back, got soap in the mouth, had to eat everything on their plate, never wasted anything, had to plow, had to finish chores on time, rode horses, never heard of computers nor needed them.....you get my point. Still, I have begun to catch myself saying those very words to my own beloved eldest nephew. As in, "When I was yer age, we didn't have ipods. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?" Just shoot me now.