“I Want to Help”

My 16-year-old son loves watching Disney and Nickelodeon shows that are what I refer to as "teenagerish." He especially loves any part of the show that seems to be mildly funny.

One show has the schoolteacher placing a burrito in the microwave. It explodes. The contents of the burrito fly all over the students walking by. Our son laughs and laughs until he literally can't laugh anymore. Then he watches that part about 10 more times to get another good belly laugh out of it.

Our son, Jac, has talked about this scene of the show for months. I just took it in stride, as I do most of his repetitive comments about shows. I didn’t put two and two together. Over the next few months, I saw him looking at our microwave. He would pretend to be pushing buttons. Yep, this momma just wasn't making the connection.

Two weeks ago, my dear husband was helping with the morning activities. He put a chicken in the crockpot for dinner later that evening and went into another room. We could hear that Jac was stirring around in the kitchen. We assumed he was messing with the crockpot, as he is also fascinated with that appliance.

My husband returned to the kitchen. Jac was staring at the microwave. Strangely, the microwave was on and Jac was smiling as he informed us he was cooking!

My dear child had pulled the chicken neck out of the trashcan and placed it in the microwave to make a nice meal. Aagh. I almost had a stroke thinking about raw chicken germs now spread all over the kitchen. But what I didn't realize was how proud my son was. He had figured out that he could cook, too.

I now call Jac's new recipe Nuked Neck Chicken. Thank you, Jac, for giving me a much-needed laugh and for helping me realize that you would like to cook.

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