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“She’s my friend,” I jumped in, coming to her rescue. Though, I had to admit that she looked cute when she was all perplexed like that.
Caleb didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure about that?”
I had to laugh at his skepticism. It was impressive for a young kid. “Yes, I would think so.”
“What makes you think he is my boyfriend?” Kathy said, taking a seat so that Caleb was between the two of us on the sofa now.
“Well, you’re hanging out alone with him,” Caleb shrugged. “Girlfriends and boyfriends do that.”
“Who taught you that?” Kathy shook her head. “That’s not true. I think girls and boys can be friends.”
“Is my mommy going out with her friend too?” Caleb continued his line of inquiry.
“No, your mom is on a date,” Kathy clarified to him.
Poor guy just looked confused. His eyes flitted between me and Kathy.
“Forget about that,” Kathy said. “What do you feel like doing?”
Caleb thought for a long moment. “Can we play a game?” he suggested eagerly.
“What sort of game?” Kathy laughed and then looked at me for a contribution.
“Don’t look at me,” I replied. “It’s his idea.”
“Okay, how about we make a deal?” Kathy turned her attention back to Caleb. “I will play whatever game you want, if you agree to do your homework first.”
“Nooo,” Caleb whined. “I don’t want to do homework. I want to play games. Now.”
“Caleb, you need to do your homework or your mom is not going to be happy about it,” Kathy replied patiently.
“No!” Caleb began to scream and kick the sofa. “I don’t wanna do homework.”
“Caleb, okay listen,” Kathy said calmly. “How about we decide over a game of rock paper scissors? If you win, I’ll play whatever game you want. But if I win, you’re going to have to do your homework first.”
“Fine,” Caleb relented.
The two of them brought their fists together.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot,” Kathy said and to Caleb’s immediate disappointment, she drew scissors, while he drew paper.
“See? I won. Fair and square,” Kathy said. “Now let’s do some homework. It’s only going to take us ten minutes to complete. Then we can play.”
Watching the two of them interact, I couldn’t help but feel impressed by the way Kathy handled the situation. She did not raise her voice even once and calmly reasoned with Caleb.
It was the exact opposite of what I had experienced growing up. Whenever my dad drank too much and he found that I was misbehaving in some way, I would always get scolded and yelled at. Even now, I felt resentful toward him for doing that to me.
I couldn’t help but think that Kathy was going to be a great mom. As she patiently handed Caleb his pencil and paper, I found myself imagining what it would be like to have a child with her.
Whoa. Where did that come from?
“Sorry about that,” Kathy said as she came back to sit on the sofa with me. “Kids can be pretty difficult sometimes.”
“You handled that really well,” I replied. “I was actually kind of impressed.”
Kathy chuckled in response. “You just need to learn how to negotiate with them. You do business all the time, I’m sure you’ll be good at it if you tried.”
“Good at negotiating at business, yes,” I said with a soft chuckle. “But negotiating with children? I have no idea.”
