This is Bullshit

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Watched my poor son and my over-worked wife struggle to make it through a French lesson yesterday. At the same time someone sent me a report at 5 PM that had to be done by the end of the day. I set to work, listening to the homework battle brewing in the kitchen below.

I finished up what I needed to do by 7 and flipped on the Yankee game as my 11-year-old boy tried his new French accent out. I was battling laughter, but it was just so ridiculous. Kathy left the room for a moment to take a break and I tried to get Jake back in a decent frame of mind.

"Lots of homework, huh?"
"Uh, yeah," he answered.
"Well I worked today too and got home to find that I had more work to do too."
"You're done," he said. "I still have an hour to go."
"Still it was a long day for me."

Jake paused for awhile. "You know, I go to school all day and I come home and have to work until I go to bed."

"Life isn't easy," I said. "At least you're learning new things."

"It's bullshit," he answered with his voice trailing off as the word shit came out of his mouth. He looked at me with guilty eyes afraid that he was going to find himself in a world of trouble for swearing.

"It is bullshit," I answered. "suck it up and tough it out and...

"Do the best I can," he finished. "I knew you'd say that."

Somehow we both knew that it was more bullshit on such a long day.

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