Welcome to the deep south.  That’s right.  Where the hospitality flows and nothing is ever negative, it’s just ‘special’, or ‘lovely’.  (“What do you think of this?” … “Oh, isn’t that lovely, dear.”)

Being the parent of three extremely extroverted kids, I often find myself struggling with the idea of being over-protective.  Yes, that’s right, I’m the one who won’t let the kids go out and play in the street unsupervised even though my parents did it.  I’m the one who makes sure that they are strapped into the all but bulletproof car seats in the safest cars with the bulletproof glass and tinted windows.  I’m the one who won’t let the kids get into the back of the truck to ride down to the pond even though I recall falling out of the truck several times as a kid.  (“Mom, I fell out of granddad’s truck on the way to the pond. It hurt.”  “Oh, isn’t that lovely, dear?”)

Most days I endure the comments.  “Oh, I understand why you won’t let your kids come over to spend the night. It’s fine, no really.. it’s lovely.”

Then there are days where I come to work and my colleague says “hey did you hear about..”, and suddenly I am justified.  Yes, welcome to the deep south, where rolling just isn’t how they roll anymore.

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