Noon was bright and Avlon was out to check her mailbox. She was just about closing the box when she saw Lily coming from a distance with her twin boys. Not sure if she had been spotted, Avlon quickly closed the mail box and walked hastily to her front porch. Unfortunately, Lily saw her and before she could reach for her door knob, Lily yelled, "Hey Avlon wait up, I'm coming to you."
With her eyes shut and her teeth pressed tightly against itself, Avlon held and squeezed on her door knob. Although she had been caught, she hesitated in turning from her door post till she eventually got into character. Pouting her lips, she blew out some air and turned to the direction of Lily who was by now close.
"Hey Lilian, how are you?" Avlon yelled a little, smiling from ear to ear and waved at Lily who by now hastened to get to her. Seeing how she struggled with her boys who couldn't match up with her speed, Avlon walked to meet up with them.
"Hi Lilian", she greeted again, squinting her eyes to prevent the sun rays from coming in.
"Heyyy... Avlon, It's Lily. I've known you for what years? And you are still too stubborn to call me Lily."
Rolling her eyes, Avlon responded, "when you get concerned about how I chose to call you, then I'm sure that you want something so out with it".
"Ok you got me, well... Ok the thing is that I got a reunion invite from my old gals and you know how reunions are right? I can't take my kids." Lily swayed her head to the direction of her twins and chuckled lightly.
But Avlon wasn't persuaded because the last thing that she wanted was to spend the afternoon with Lily's children.
"No Lilian, I don't know how reunions are, if you can't take your kids along then you simply call a babysitter or put them in some arranged daycare. I have a lot going on for me and your children will just make my situation more difficult."
"Common Avlon, how many times have you seen me dolled up during the day?”
"I'm sorry Lilian, I can't take your kids". Avlon turned to her house, while Lily dragged her children after her, pleading to be considered.
"Avlon, please don't leave me like this". Avlon remained mute as Lily thought hard on how to get her to babysit her boys.
“Ok wait up, I'll uh... I'll do your grocery shopping for a week". knowing fully well how Avlon hated grocery shopping, Lily hoped that she could be considered.
“A week, Lilian?”
“Ok a month, I'll do your grocery shopping for a month. Just help me please”.
“You can't take your children to a reunion but you want to do my groceries for one whole month?" Avlon questioned raising her left brow.
“Help me out here babe, I'm desperate and I'll say anything.” Lily pleaded and finally, she got through to Avlon who asked her to hand over the boys and run along. In an overly excited mood, she gave Avlon a side hug and pecked her on the cheek. Next, it was her walking briskly back to her block where her car was parked.
All through the while, Lily's boys were quiet. After watching their mother leave, they stared at Avlon who also stared back.
"Well, don't just stand there and mope, get into the house," Avlon instructed and without hesitation, the twins held hands and walked slowly to Avlon's house.
Lily's boys were children that everyone in the block knew to be quite unruly. They were such a handful that Lilly got blacklisted by the babysitters in her area. However, she wasn't going to turn down the reunion invite. For what is worth, she could get several opportunities for remote jobs. Being that her girls were highly connected while she struggles to catch up.
With Avlon and the boys, everything was going well. Despite not having any children of her own, Avlon sure knows how to nurture. As she baked in the kitchen, she kept the boys occupied with some art work. Everything was going smoothly till she got done baking and Paul wanted some cookies. He had made attempts to grab some while they were still hot, but was prevented by Avlon who told him to wait for it to cool.
“But I'm hungry now! I need some cookies and I want it hot.” Paul protested.
“You are only getting cookies when they are cold. I'm not about to explain to your mother how you got burnt.”
“Well I don't care, I'm going for a cookie”. Paul made his way to the kitchen.
In rage, Avlon yelled, “take one more step young man and I promise you that you'll be spanked.” The boys gasped, their mother had never spanked them before of which Peter informed Avlon.
“You mean your mother never spanked you for any misconduct?” Avlon inquired
“Nope, she only threatens us but never goes through with it”
"Oh wow!...." Before Avlon could say something else, a loud crash came from the kitchen. Rushing to check it out, it was Paul holding a cookie while the rest of the cookies were on the floor.
Angered, Avlon grabbed Paul by the arm. Laid him horizontally on her laps and gave him some good spanking. She also made him clean up the mess and after the whole ordeal, Paul slept off from exhaustion forcing Peter to sleep too. When Lily showed up, she couldn't believe her eyes.
"Hey girl, thank you so much for your assistance. Hope they weren't too much to handle?" Lily inquired.
"Well, you met them asleep right?"
Lily became curious as to how Avlon was able to pull it off with her children. She was open to learning but that changed when Avlon narrated all that happened with Paul.
“Avlon, I don't spank my children. I also do not make them clean up because they are still babies. You could have talked to Paul and not treated him like some Orphan.”
“Lilian are you ok? You call a 6 year old a baby? Wow! This is rich” Avlon burst out laughing but Lily wasn't finding the whole situation funny.
“Damnit Avlon, did I do bad leaving my kids with you?”
“Lilian, your parenting style is stupid that's why your children are wild. I'm not getting into an argument with you, take your children and leave this minute.”
“Wait what? Avlon you don't even have a child and you tell me that my parenting style is stupid? Do you think you are better than me? Telling women all over the world that motherhood is not a priority because you simply can't have a child? Men! I should have taken my kids with me. I don't blame you.
Peter! Paul! Mommy is here, let's go home”. After waiting impatiently for some seconds, Lily went into the room to wake her boys up. As she dragged them out with sleepy eyes, Avlon informed Lily that their friendship had served its purpose and would no longer want anything to do with her and her family. Lily, who was furious over their quarrel, kissed her teeth and exited without a response.
That night, Lily could not sleep so she woke her husband up.
“Babe it's Sunday and we will be going to church. Please let me sleep.” Paulson pleaded while still lying face down.
“Am I a bad mother?” A question that forced Paulson's eyes open and made him sit up on the bed.
“Why would you ask me that? You are a great mom.”
“Well Avlon doesn't seem to think that way.”
“What does Avlon know about parenting? She doesn't even have a child” Paulson responded with a chuckle.
“Thank you! Thank you very much for that statement babe. Avlon always wants to be Miss perfect. Harvard scholar, successful blogger but can't keep a family. Three husbands in less than 10 years but I'm a terrible parent.”
“Babe, what happened? Sounding like this about your friend? Wow! She must have really overstepped this time”
“Well, she's no longer my friend, she made that clear.” By now Lily was sober. She was hurt and never expected that Avlon would cut her off. If there was one person who had made her stay in the neighborhood enjoyable it was Avlon. They were family and she really wished that things didn't end the way that they did. After narrating the whole situation to her husband, Lily was shocked that he didn't see anything wrong in what Avlon did. He did not only encourage it but he also urged Lily to emulate it, of which she rebuked him.
The thing is, Lily came from a toxic home and her mother raised her up the old fashioned way. Thus, she was hell bent never to lay hands on her children because she doesn't want to be like her mother. However, it was obvious that her children might have outgrown her approach as they no longer listened to her and just acted as they pleased.
Paulson and Lily's talk metamorphosed into a fierce argument and Paulson immediately allowed her win for their relationship to be safeguarded. Despite that Paulson agreed with Lily over her style of parenting, she was still upset and for the rest of the night, sleep eluded her.
Later that morning, she was down with a headache. Although she had taken some aspirin, the noise and argument from her children compounded her issues as her head banged. In frustration, she marched down to the toilet and yelled for them to cut it out. The children looked at themselves and started laughing.
Paying close attention to what they were doing, Lily was horrified to see them use their toothbrushes to scrub the toilet. Immediately, she felt this uncontrollable rage and she more than anything wanted to go the old fashioned way with her boys. Fortunately, she calmed herself down and tried her approach of reasoning. But the boys were not listening as they acted like she was invisible. At that moment, Lily saw first hand all that Avlon and her husband were trying to tell her. She started to question herself, wondering how her children could listen to Avlon and not to her.
Still in a fix, Lily didn't know when she yelled at her children and threatened to march them over to Avlon's if they didn't behave. Like water on fire, the children immediately became calm and started to listen.
Later that day, Lily narrated everything to her husband and all he could say was, “indeed when the cat's away, the mice will play”.
Hitting him lightly on the back, Lily questioned, "who's now the cat and who are the mice?"
"I don't know for you madam mommy, you better go apologize to your friend and fix your friendship". Paulson responded laughing as he made efforts to escape Lily's wrath.
@bipolar95, if you read our rules you’ll find that we’ve decided not to support or curate stories about child beatings.
Ohh ok, noted. Would check that out.
Treasure Trove of Tips and Guidelines pinned to the top of the community page. You can learn more by reading item #3.Thank you, @bipolar95. Please also see the
Alright, thanks for the help.
I really do not know why people act weird when they are not interested in being friends with someone anymore just tell me you don’t want me around and I’ll leave jejely. I’m so sorry you had to go through this darling.