Rhetorical Questions?

jo53 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:34:43 -0500

Some days it doesn't pay to answer a question! For example:

One night my teen daughter, Jaime, was on the phone to a friend. As I entered the room that she was in, she said, "Mom, Donnie says that I'm a pain in the butt. What does that make him?"

I ventured a guess, "Smart?"

"You are NOT funny, mom!" she said rather hatefully.

Darn...here I thought I was blessed with a good sense of humor. But, what the hell do I know?

Then there was the day that Jaime came home from school and was kind of rushing around, like she was getting ready to go somewhere. I asked, "What are you doing?"

She yelled at me, saying, "WHAT DO I DO EVERY DAY AFTER SCHOOL, MOM?"

I quickly answered, "B*tch?" Now, this was said with much enthusiasm because I felt I was FINALLY going to get the correct answer to one of her questions! She left...slamming the front door behind her.

I looked at my dad, who was here visiting, and asked, "What? Was that the wrong answer?" Dad said he felt I had given her the correct answer.

So a few nights later when this same daughter asked me if she was being bitchy, I seriously panicked! Was this a rhetorical question? Did she really want an answer? And if so, did she want the truth or a somewhat glossed over version of the truth? And why in the world is she asking me anyway when every other time that I offer my opinion on something, she says, "You don't know anything, mom!"

After a long pause, during which I'm sure she wondered if I were deaf or just ignoring her, I finally blurted out, "No more than usual, why?" Oh crap...judging by her reaction this was not the answer that she wanted!

I swear, some days I think being the mother of a PMS-ing teenaged girl really sucks. I also think she needs to quit asking me these kind of questions!

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Rhetorical Questions?