The Dreaded Moment

It happened this morning- June 28th, 2010- after swimming lessons. Hunter has been pleading with me to buy him "Smash Brothers" which is some kind of Super Mario Brothers game for Wii. The game costs fifty dollars and I had fantasized about Hunter earning the money to buy the game by doing little chores around the house. That will honestly take forever, even on the dollar-a-day allowance. So... I told Hunter that if he worked really hard at swimming lessons (10 total lessons), I would buy the game for him because he worked so hard. Well, 10 lessons in Hunter's mind isn't what 10 lessons is in mine. Somehow he had decided that if he completed one full lesson, he would be playing "Smash Brothers" within the hour. Not so, however. I told him again, "Nope, Hunter. Ten lessons. Then I will buy Smash Brothers." We went back and forth like this for a good ten minutes. I finally had it and told him that if he wouldn't stop complaining, I would just say NO to the whole thing.

Then he said it.

It broke my heart.

"I don't want to live with you anymore. I'm going to a new house." (So, it wasn't the teenage "I hate you" yet, but still... it burned)

My response: "I don't want you to go. I love you. I would be sad without you."

Hunter: "I don't want to live in your house. I'm going to live at Hudson's house."

We went back and forth like this for a few minutes. When we got home I asked Hunter what his plan was. We were in the garage at this point.

"I'm going to Hudson's."

Me: "How will you get there."

Hunter: "I'll drive."

Me: "Okay. I'll see you later then. I love you. I'll miss you."

I walked into the house and shut the down.

Hunter stood out in the driveway for maybe two minutes before he came in and said:

"But I don't know how to get there. You need to take me."

Me: "No, I can't. It's too long of a drive. You'll need to drive yourself."

Silence. We went back and forth a couple more times, Hunter insisting I drive him eight hours to Hudson's house and me telling him it was an impossibility.

More silence.

Finally, Hunter said, "Oh, I'm sorry Mom. I want to be with you. I'm sorry I said that."

All is well again!

I'm sure we'll go through this again tomorrow after our second swimming lesson. One down. Nine more to go.