My OperaThe Ostrich Incident
Saturday, January 28, 2012 5:09:28 AM
It’s been more than a year now and people have been asking me what it is like to be remarried, especially now that I have a total of five kids.
Perhaps my journal entry is the best way to describe it…
Over the past month or so I have been feeling great. I have just been happy about life, about my partner, about all of our kids, about work, and about some of the personal initiatives I've begun to implement. But this weekend, it was different. I was tired, irritated, and disappointed with ‘stuff’. With each of the kids wanting a bit of me, I felt drawn in 3 million directions. The house was a mess, no one was helping, and I did not have a few minutes of my own time to even scratch my head.
The previous day, my neighbour and I had made a decision to have a yard sale. Side by side garage sales meant a bigger crowd and more sales. At about mid-morning, I took my 14-year-old son, Louis, over to my neighbor’s house to see what they had for sale. Tucked away, he noticed a big purple marionette and decided he had to have it. I attempted to dissuade him; after all was not the purpose of a yard sale to help reduce our junk, not trade it in for more? He didn't let it out of his sight and at the end of the day, with $4 in his hand, he went to make his purchase. The moment he got home, his 16-year-old stepbrother, Jonathan, saw this puppet and had to get one too. Fortunately there was one left. He scrounged up all his change and they accepted the deal for 3 dollars and 85 cents. It was an ostrich and Jonathan instantly called him Ollie.
Two grown boys - both taller than me -walking around with marionettes. Fun.
Within seconds, Jonathan’s brothers, Brian and Michael, were fighting with each other for the puppet. They offered him progressively higher bids to buy it from him. $5, $10, $12, $15, $20!!! It would have been a great gain on his investment - but he refused their offers. He made a concession, however and permitted them to play with it in his absence. That night he had a date with his girlfriend so the two boys were able to play with it for the evening.
In a war over who got to play with it first, the ostrich puppet strings got destroyed. They made an effort to fix it, but it just wasn’t the same. The next day, Michael had about four friends over to study for exams. The ostrich had been left on Michael’s bed in his room, and without any consideration to what was on the bed, one of his friends plopped himself down and crunched the bird. Poor Ollie.
When Jonathan saw the state of his Ostrich the next day, he flipped out. “I can’t believe you did this to Ollie! You don’t take care of anything! You are both disrespectful and careless! I will never lend you anything again! You owe me $3.85!”
He ranted for around 40 minutes, when at last, he pulled out a piece of paper and demanded that they sign a pledge that they would not touch his things again.
They refused.
Then he proceeded to ask his dad to sign on their behalf. They were under legal signing age anyways and he thought he needed legal consent.
His dad refused.
At this time, Jonathan was straddling the line between being mad and being a stand-up comedian. He said, “Fine. I will sign it for you.” He wrote the word ‘Daddy’ on the lines beside Brian and Michael’s names.
“You can’t sign my name,” Allan protested. “That is forgery!”
The moment Brian heard the term “forgery”, he determined that it was a criminal offense and called 911.
Although he hung up a split-second after dialing, he was shocked to learn that a police officer had been dispatched to our place to check out the “Ostrich Incident.” The police officer was hard put not to laugh when he heard the entire story, but he put on a stern face and educated the kids, all of whom were sitting apprehensively in a row on the living room couch, about the proper use of the 9-1-1 emergency service.
Later that night, as we sat around the dinner table talking about how that episode would have made for good T.V., the kids were rather contrite and agreed to help out more at home and concentrate just a little more on being considerate towards the people around them. They ALL helped in the kitchen afterwards - one wiping the table, one washing, one loading the dishwasher, one on Tupperware duty, etc... We worked like a well-oiled machine and it felt fantastic. Nobody left the kitchen until it was ALL done.
My grumpiness had evaporated, and all it took was an ostrich.
Kim Ades, MBA, President of Frame of Mind Coaching, is one of North America’s foremost experts on performance through thought management. By using her unique process of coaching through journaling, she works with clients to unveil and switch their thought patterns to ignite significant change and life transformation. She is now teaching this process to coaches all over the world for use with their clients. Visit www.frameofmindcoaching to sign up for your own free, secure, online journal.
Perhaps my journal entry is the best way to describe it…
Over the past month or so I have been feeling great. I have just been happy about life, about my partner, about all of our kids, about work, and about some of the personal initiatives I've begun to implement. But this weekend, it was different. I was tired, irritated, and disappointed with ‘stuff’. With each of the kids wanting a bit of me, I felt drawn in 3 million directions. The house was a mess, no one was helping, and I did not have a few minutes of my own time to even scratch my head.
The previous day, my neighbour and I had made a decision to have a yard sale. Side by side garage sales meant a bigger crowd and more sales. At about mid-morning, I took my 14-year-old son, Louis, over to my neighbor’s house to see what they had for sale. Tucked away, he noticed a big purple marionette and decided he had to have it. I attempted to dissuade him; after all was not the purpose of a yard sale to help reduce our junk, not trade it in for more? He didn't let it out of his sight and at the end of the day, with $4 in his hand, he went to make his purchase. The moment he got home, his 16-year-old stepbrother, Jonathan, saw this puppet and had to get one too. Fortunately there was one left. He scrounged up all his change and they accepted the deal for 3 dollars and 85 cents. It was an ostrich and Jonathan instantly called him Ollie.
Two grown boys - both taller than me -walking around with marionettes. Fun.
Within seconds, Jonathan’s brothers, Brian and Michael, were fighting with each other for the puppet. They offered him progressively higher bids to buy it from him. $5, $10, $12, $15, $20!!! It would have been a great gain on his investment - but he refused their offers. He made a concession, however and permitted them to play with it in his absence. That night he had a date with his girlfriend so the two boys were able to play with it for the evening.
In a war over who got to play with it first, the ostrich puppet strings got destroyed. They made an effort to fix it, but it just wasn’t the same. The next day, Michael had about four friends over to study for exams. The ostrich had been left on Michael’s bed in his room, and without any consideration to what was on the bed, one of his friends plopped himself down and crunched the bird. Poor Ollie.
When Jonathan saw the state of his Ostrich the next day, he flipped out. “I can’t believe you did this to Ollie! You don’t take care of anything! You are both disrespectful and careless! I will never lend you anything again! You owe me $3.85!”
He ranted for around 40 minutes, when at last, he pulled out a piece of paper and demanded that they sign a pledge that they would not touch his things again.
They refused.
Then he proceeded to ask his dad to sign on their behalf. They were under legal signing age anyways and he thought he needed legal consent.
His dad refused.
At this time, Jonathan was straddling the line between being mad and being a stand-up comedian. He said, “Fine. I will sign it for you.” He wrote the word ‘Daddy’ on the lines beside Brian and Michael’s names.
“You can’t sign my name,” Allan protested. “That is forgery!”
The moment Brian heard the term “forgery”, he determined that it was a criminal offense and called 911.
Although he hung up a split-second after dialing, he was shocked to learn that a police officer had been dispatched to our place to check out the “Ostrich Incident.” The police officer was hard put not to laugh when he heard the entire story, but he put on a stern face and educated the kids, all of whom were sitting apprehensively in a row on the living room couch, about the proper use of the 9-1-1 emergency service.
Later that night, as we sat around the dinner table talking about how that episode would have made for good T.V., the kids were rather contrite and agreed to help out more at home and concentrate just a little more on being considerate towards the people around them. They ALL helped in the kitchen afterwards - one wiping the table, one washing, one loading the dishwasher, one on Tupperware duty, etc... We worked like a well-oiled machine and it felt fantastic. Nobody left the kitchen until it was ALL done.
My grumpiness had evaporated, and all it took was an ostrich.
Kim Ades, MBA, President of Frame of Mind Coaching, is one of North America’s foremost experts on performance through thought management. By using her unique process of coaching through journaling, she works with clients to unveil and switch their thought patterns to ignite significant change and life transformation. She is now teaching this process to coaches all over the world for use with their clients. Visit www.frameofmindcoaching to sign up for your own free, secure, online journal.
