Читать книгу Do As I Say, Not As I Did - Michael N Marcus - Страница 46

We moved to New Haven when I was in first grade. When I walked to school on the first day I missed a critical left turn and had to be rescued by a cop who drove me to school. I should have been given better instructions by my mother. Maybe she should have let me walk but followed me in her car a few hundred feet behind.

My only ‘child’ is Hunter, a Golden Retriever. I regard him as a child, friend and housemate—but never a mere pet and certainly not a possession.

He likes to run around and explore a certain state park. We go in pretty deep where he is in no danger from cars. He could run far from me but he doesn’t. Even when he’s loping through the meadows or sniffing exotic plants he looks for me every minute or so and likes knowing I am nearby.

Our back yard has a gate. Hunter has escaped a few times but never goes more than a few hundred feet away because he knows how good he has it here. We joke that he knows not to die because heaven can’t possibly be as good as life on earth.

When I was 12 years old I was given my own room on the lower level of the house. It was kind of a junior “bachelor pad” with my own door to the outside, a nearby freezer for ice cream and a phone. I rigged up a button and buzzer so I could be summoned upstairs for meals. I loved my independence but I became very alienated from my parents. In retrospect, they made a very bad decision.

Lesson: Independence is important for children, but there are limits.

When I was about ten I was carving a piece of wood and stupidly pulled the knife toward me instead of pushing it away from me. The knife slipped and I stabbed myself in the head. If I look closely I can still find the scar.

Lesson: Teach kids how to safely use tools, knives and the stove—and how to change a flat tire and jump-start a car with a dead battery.