Sep 22 2008
Disruption
Disruption has such a negative connotation, doesn’t it? I’m not even sure the word is applicable in the context in which I heard it yesterday. First, the backstory…
About two weeks ago my mother-in-law phoned to ask if it would be okay for her to come to our house for a few days to visit. (She uses calling cards, so I never know by the caller ID who it might be.) An acquaintance offered to give her a ride from the retirement community where she lives to the metro area where we live, about a 4 hour drive one-way. She asked so nicely - it was impossible to say no. And, this is my child’s only paternal grandmother, after all. So, I said, “Sure, that sounds great!”
Well, I’ll spare the description of the visit. It always starts well but deteriorates rapidly. Yesterday we took her to meet the acquaintance so that she could start the journey back to the artsy-fartsy mountain city where she lives. With online directions printed and in hand, we wandered around the college town trying to find the address, and my husband was about to lose it. I could feel his blood pressure rising, and I certainly heard it as he used a mild expletive (thankfully, our daughter was asleep in her seat.). As we pulled into the driveway, I said, “Next time, we’re meeting at a shopping center; we are not doing this again!” My mother-in-law smirked, “I’m sorry to be such a disruption!”
Now, I would never have said that, but now that I think about it, it is true. This woman disrupted our normally peaceful Sunday morning, the one morning a week we have as a family to enjoy time together goofing off. Were it not for her horrible, me-first attitude, I never would even silently agree that she is a disruption. Whenever she visits, we are subjected to a litany of complaints, ranging from her health and diseased eyesight to her loneliness. What she doesn’t realize is that if she complained less, relatives would gladly visit more often (or host her more often), and then she wouldn’t be so lonely. SIGH!
