"No," Char and my mom answer in unison.
It was the response I expected.
"Rich will give you one," my mom suggests. "Ask him. He'll say yes."
"Do you ever take advantage of the fact that he's so nice?" I ask.
"Oh yeah," she says. "In the early days I used to call up my sisters and say, 'you won't believe it—he'll do anything I say!'"
This got us talking. Apparently my aunt Mona* remembers exactly when my mom stopped doing things for her when they were growing up. Everybody has a limit—eventually.
I too remember when I finally said no to my siblings. I was 10 years old and we were downstairs at the 'new' house. It was the first time I'd ever lived anywhere with stairs, and when one of them asked me to get them a glass of water, I really didn't want to hike up all those steps to the kitchen.
So, I said no. What a revelation! I'd been their slave for years and all along the solution was a simple, two-letter word. NO!
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| Well, this is odd. What's up with his eyes? Levar Burton, is that you? Image via Wikimedia Commons |
There's a fine line between being nice and being a sucker. My dad, of course, said yes to the shoulder massage without hesitation—but that's because he's nice! And it's good to be nice. The world is a better place because nice people give other people shoulder massages. Or they agree to get people glasses of water when asked. But it's possible for both parties to take it too far.
What's the lesson here?
- Super-nice people of the world: curb your instinct to say 'yes' to everybody. You'll get burnt out and resentful.
- Less-nice people of the world: curb your instinct to bleed super-nice people of their innate goodness and use it to your advantage.
It's all about balance. Everything in moderation (even moderation!!! HA HA HA HA).
Cheerio,
Margaret
P.S. Corn-on-the-cob tonight and popcorn. You know what that means. Girl's gotta floss!
* In a previous edition of this blog post, I referred to my aunt Barb when I meant my aunt Mo. Madgespace regrets the error!
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