We have a new game. It consists of assigning Swedish houses to their respective Harry Potter Character owners. So far we have allocated Professor McGonagal’s house, Harry / Ginny’s house, Snape’s house and we are on the look out today for Dumbledore’s house or possibly Ron and Hermine’s. It doesn’t actually matter what really happens to the characters in the books, even if they die, they are still entitled to an appropriate Swedish house.
The game was invented as a necessity. As they say “necessity is the mother of invention.” In this case it has served us well. Anyone who has attempted long walks with pre teenage kids will understand. It involves endurance of all kinds. We are subjected to a litany of complaints from the dramatic “I can’t walk anymore” to the consistent “Are we there yet?” . There is of course a litany of other complaints I will not subject you to now. At any rate it involves strong nerves on our part, a lot of tough love and an ability to ignore their suffering. My own mother is probably laughing with Schadenfreude right now. She would say I was just as bad if not a million times worse. She is indeed 100% right… And now I suffer the same fate as we often do.
My mother has sometimes proudly stated that „She taught us all to walk” . She does not mean what you are thinking… you are picturing a wobbly toddler standing for the first time and taking steps. Granted she was there for that event, but I am guessing we figured it out as universally the majority of toddlers do. No she meant she marched us on long walks and endured the complaints (see above) and issued the same tough love (also above). More accurately, she trained us to be walkers. When she proudly proclaimed that she taught us all to walk, I must admit that it meant nothing to me. Until now, I was unaware of the trouble she went to and what she must have endured to get us there. Now I know. Sorry Mom. I underestimated the task at hand. Enjoy your Schadenfreude. It was indeed well earned.
So now I am resorting to distraction tactics. We have the Harry Potter game. I have yesterday afternoon repeatedly clarified that the game does not work from the comfort of the car while driving past. We would not have sufficient time to really check out the houses and Snape might end up living in Harry’s house. So far we are on a roll and the injustice of walking has for now been forgotten….