Last night I had a great time with my son!
A friend gave us her cast-off but gorgeous sleek stainless steel upside down Fisher & Paykel fridge. I already had a fridge but I bought it when I was poor(er) after my 14-y-o upside down Fisher & Paykel fridge died.
I never really liked it. The shelves were cheap and nasty. The interior light was blue! It was a boxy shape. The "door open" alarm goes off as soon as you open the door.
My 16-y-o son arrived home from school to see the kitchen is disarray and was surprised to see two fridges. "I like the old one" he said. That's because - like me at the same time - he felt sorry for it. He was well aware of its failings but was sticking up for it in the face of the shiny usurping fridge.
Anyway as I've been side-lined a bit with back troubles, he offered to help. First task was to move the no longer desired fridge out of prime fridge position and replace with shiny desirable fridge. Son liked using the big red trolley. Bit my tongue when he said the new fridge power cord was too short to reach the power point. Resisted the urge to go around and uncurl power cord from whatever it was caught against.
Son pleased with self upon positioning new fridge in prime position and powering it up.
From there it was a shared evening of checking use-by dates, cleaning unidentifiable furry organic material from fridge shelves, discussing school, dating, anxiety and his growing self-confidence.
The best part was watching him make decisions, and me allowing him to make decisions rather than saying "No this is how you do it".
He hugged me at the end and said he liked the new fridge an we would need to revere it by only filling it with organic, free-range, sow-stall-free, grass-fed stuff. I said to him "Thanks so much for helping me. It would have taken twice as long by myself." Then I said" "I knew that power cord was wrapped around something, but I knew you would work it out." He said "I'd rather you tell me if I'm being stupid!". I replied that I would always tell him if I thought he was being stupid, but this event was not one of those times - it was a Life Skills lesson :-)
He smiled and nodded his head. We'd had two hours of helping each other, talking about things and learning. Great night!
