Se Choi Mr. Ramage EAP 159 2 October 2008 My Unique Perfect Son
Some parents think they have intelligent and easy going children, or some may think they have very challenging and unpredictable children. But no matter what, all those parents have very different experiences of raising their children. I strongly believe I have a very unique child on my hands, and raising my son has been a big challenge for me.
My son has a bright
mind and most of time he is well-behaved; however, sometimes he gets into trouble because of his mischievous experiments. For example, when he turned two years old, his favorite playground was local grocery stores. If you ask most of two years old kids where they want to play, their answer would be “McDonald” or “playground.” However, if I asked my son same questions, he always answered clearly, “Fred Meyer.” As soon as he had arrived at the store and had found the targeted aisle, he stretched out his hand and began to feel all the displayed items. He just liked to touch all the texture of bags, cans, and other materials. I thought he was a person learning through touching. One day, when my son was about six, I found him in the bathroom, and he was ready to gurgle with something. Instantly, I knew he was up to something because he couldn’t keep eye-
contact with me. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, “Nothing. I just finished bushing my teeth.” However, brushing his teeth in the middle of afternoon had aroused my suspicion more. With very casual voice, I asked him what was in the cup, and he said very proudly, “My new gurgle. I mixed with little bit of lotion, hair gel, and tooth paste.” “You might even like it. It will make your teeth smooth because of lotion, shine because of hair gel, and very minty taste because of tooth paste.” I was extremely glad I caught him right before he tried his new invention. Moreover, when he was about seven years old, he began to read a lot of books, and one of his favorite series of books was called The Captain Underpants. These stories of books were about two behaviorally challenged boys who got into a lot of troubles because of their mischievous experiments, but at the end of the story they saved the world. One day my son decided to copy one of their experiments. First, he opened the toilet seat and placed a couple of ketchup packets between the seat and the bowl. Then, he carefully closed the toilet seat. After that, he waited quietly for someone to sit on the toilet seat. Unfortunately, my innocent daughter was the victim of his experiment that day. As soon as she sat on the toilet seat, the ketchup packets blew up. Ketchup was all over the bathroom wall, on the floor, and on my frantic daughter. Now, he is almost twelve, and he is still enjoying experiments on his new ideas. For instance, mixing diet Coke in a bottle with Mentoes – the coke erupted like a fire-hose, and another experiment that he liked was mixing vinegar and baking soda in a bottle – after quick shake the bottle, the bottle cap sailed like a shooting rocket. His endless curiosity and making
mess have been providing a tremendously exhausting job for me; however, at the same time he is giving me very unique experiences other mothers never have, and he is always my perfect son.