Waiting and relaxing

You decide to sit down on the couch and watch TV while waiting for her to arrive. Sure you could set up more rules and all that, but truth be told, you were eager to first see how the ones you already had set up would play out, before you would go further.

Linda came home late today. Especially noteworthy was that she did not arrive with the school bus as usual. Sure, she was among the people with the shortest route to school, so as she appeared 15 minutes late by foot it would stand to reason that she simply missed the bus and walked. However, her delay was obviously not the focus. You only saw her for a second, because as you heard the door open and stood up to walk towards her - same as her mother - you already saw her heading for the stairs and then walking up them quickly.

The point you were focused on was her face. She was obviously crying with a heavily ruined makeup. Before you or Barbara could say anything, you heard her scream. "Leave me alone" and then her door shut close.

Barbara turned to you and looked apologetic and aimed to go up the stairs but you stopped her. "It's okay. I am sure she will come down any minute now and will have calmed down a bit. We should just give her time." You say this, but you know full well that she would not. Linda was known to - when she got emotional - stay that way for a while each time. Good thing you did not make your former resolution about not adding new rules a rule itself, you think.

You take out the Rulebook and start writing in the category of Linda Innes:

New Rule: After each day of school, Linda sits down with her mother in the living room and tells her in detail about her school day. She will skip over normal school stuff mostly and focus intensely on everything that made her feel sad, embarrassed or bad in any way and also go into detail how it happened and what caused it. She may not leave out details, even if she would like to.

And then you make a new category named Barbara Innes:

New Rule: Every time her daughter tells her a secret or something embarrassing about herself, she will make fun of her for it and keep poking at her insecurities. She will keep bringing them up, especially in front of guests and her friends. She may not act reluctant in this and must pretend that she enjoys doing this and act as if she does this out of her own will.

You smile as you close the book and wait for both rules to go into effect. It would certainly become an interesting conversation!