I was standing at Gate B12 in Seattle, juggling a paper coffee cup and my daughter\u2019s pink backpack, when my mother called and, without any greeting, said, \u201cClaire, don\u2019t get on that plane. We think it\u2019s better if you skip Thanksgiving this year. Sophie is embarrassing, and Natalie needs one drama-free day.\u201dFor a moment, I genuinely thought I had heard her wrong. Around us, people were lining up by boarding group, pulling rolling suitcases, putting on headphones, arguing about overhead bin space. My six-year-old, Sophie, sat on the floor in her small denim jacket, coloring a turkey on the back of a kids\u2019 menu from the airport caf\u00e9. She looked up at my face before I could reply. Children always sense when the atmosphere shifts.What do you mean embarrassing?\u201d I asked.My mother lowered her voice, the way she did when she wanted to say something unkind while pretending it was reasonable. \u201cShe asks inappropriate questions. She talks too loudly. Last Easter she asked Natalie in front of everyone why she had a new boyfriend every year. Your sister is hosting Eric\u2019s parents today. We are not doing a repeat of that scene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sophie wasn\u2019t rude. She was six. She was bright, literal, and curious in the way children are before adults teach them which truths are socially acceptable and which truths get them punished. At Easter she had also asked my father why he got angry whenever someone touched Grandma Evelyn\u2019s china cabinet, and why Aunt Natalie cried in the laundry room after two glasses of wine. Apparently honesty was only charming when it came from adults who edited themselves.\u201cWe\u2019re already at the airport,\u201d I said. \u201cI spent nine hundred dollars on these tickets.\u201dMy mother sighed as if I were being deliberately difficult. \u201cThen eat the cost. Go somewhere else. Natalie deserves one peaceful holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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