Schooling the boys

I’ve written about Smart Boy in the past. Sunday after church I took him and his two cousins up to the climbing gym. Before getting to the gym we stopped at Wendy’s for lunch.

Lesson 1: Live within your means.

I told them they could order two items from the dollar menu or one item from the main menu. I ordered large fries for all of us to share and everyone drank water. Lunch for four: $13.25. My parents always made us budget in restaurants. To this day if I pay for a drink in a restaurant I feel like the biggest spendthrift richest person in the world.

Lesson 2: Finish what you start

Because I am an evil, evil woman, I didn’t let them down until they finished at least one climb. Smart Boy flew up the walls like Spiderman. He loved climbing. When I first started climbing it took me a few weeks before I even tried a marked route (they put tape next to the holds to indicate what’s ‘on’). I played on 5.6 and 5.7 climbs for another few weeks. When I tackled my first 5.8 I thought I’d conquered the world. Wouldn’t you know it, Smart Boy completed an overhung 5.8 on his fourth climb! Rotten little bugger. His cousins didn’t fare so well. They did fine before they’d tried a climb. The mocking and posturing while Spider Smart Boy climbed made them seem like they’d trekked Everest in their sleep. Then Big Boy got on the wall, clawed up four holds and died. I kept zapping him verbally until he finished the wall. It took a LONG time, strained my recently sewn hand muscle and seemed to drive the people around me crazy, but it was worth it to have him beaming when he finished.