Conversation: Military Kid...Rip My Heart Out

Players
Mom
Alan

Setting
in living room at new house...with boxes of stuff all around

ACTION

Alan: So, Mom. Where do you think we will put the Christmas Tree this year?  (Kind of random, don't you think?)

Mom: I don't know. You always do have to think about that when you move in to a new house, now don't you.  What do you think? We don't want it too close to the fire place and there's a door over there, so we might have to put it over here...

Alan: Yeah. That sounds good.  You don't want it to be too close to the playroom door so you have to move the branches and squeeze through (btw: he acted that out while he was talking...)

Alan: So, do you think we are going to get a fake tree this year?

Mom: Well, I was thinking (I WAS thinking about this last night, actually) that we would probably still drive out to the tree farm and get a fresh one. But, we will have to cut it down ourselves. Do you think you could help with that?  You are the man of the house right now.  How do you feel about that?  (I usually steer away from saying he is the "man of the house.")

Alan: You know, I heard a song that said "it is hard to be a kid when you're the man of the house."

Mom: You did? Really?

Alan: Yeah! It's about a boy who's Dad is at war so he's the man of the house.

And I went to the computer and looked it up. Sure enough..."Man of the House" By Chuck Wicks...

Now, the boy in the song bears a lot of responsibility for the family. I hope that Alan doesn't really feel this way. I asked him and he said he didn't feel like the man of the house...but, in reality, there are lots of different roles we all have to play. I'm sure if Jim would have been here to help us move, the kids wouldn't have had to do as much as they did, though I'd like to think we still would have made them move the stuff from their rooms.