Mama’s Boy
I guess it’s no secret that my mom lives with us. It’s a great arrangement all the way around, as we all take care of each other. My mom has been a great help in raising our kids and now it’s time to repay her by taking care of her. Not that she needs taking care of, because she is pretty much self-sufficient. She was a tremendous help when we were caring for my wife’s mother, so I can attest that there’s nothing like having family.
On Saturdays at the Nagasawa household, my wife takes our 14-year-old daughter to hula and Tahitian dance class. That means I have the entire day at home to spend with my mom. We generally do our own thing, but living under the same roof, you can’t help but cross paths every other minute. It wouldn’t be so bad, except that at 52 years old, I’m still my mom’s first-born son. That means despite being the publisher of Hawaii’s largest weekly newspaper, she still treats me like a little boy.
The other Saturday, I decided I would go to our front yard to weed the lawn. Of course, you could say that my entire front lawn consists of weeds, but we won’t go there. It was a sunny day, so I threw on some shorts and a T-shirt. Most of my T-shirts are black in color, so that’s what I went with. Before I could walk out the door, my mom stopped me and said, “You’re not going out with that shirt, are you?” I told her I was going to pull the weeds. She said wearing black would be too hot, that I was making her feel hot just by looking at me. I told her to turn on the air conditioner and walked out the door.
Five minutes passed by and then she came out with a tube of sunscreen. “You should put this on,” she said. I fired back, “Ma, I know what I’m doing!” Another 15 minutes later she came back out holding a baseball cap. “Ron, you should put this on,” she insisted. She meant well, but I don’t like being told what to do by my mother at least not in public. After another 20 minutes she came back out and I braced myself. “Ron, would you like me to make you some lunch?”
My reply? “Yes, Mommy!”
