Rules Are Rules

As a child I let DoDo know that I was the parent and he was the child and as long as he was in my house he had to abide by my rules. I informed him when he got his house he could do whatever he wanted to do in it. DoDo was a pretty obedient child. He didn’t give me trouble and basically did as I told him to do. So I never had to threaten to put him out or anything of the sort. I remember once when DoDo was living in Louisiana I went to visit him and, Kendra, Khaliq wasn’t born yet. I had reached for my cigarettes and was getting ready to light one. DoDo reminded me that I was in his house and he did not allow smoking in it. So he gave me a glass half-filled with water and told me to go outside. It was his house and I did have to obey his rules so I went outside in the cold sat on the stoop and smoked a cigarette. Then I went back into the house and I told him that he ought to be ashamed sending his mother outside to smoke. He said, ”My mother should not be smoking”. I am happy to say that I have not smoked since June 1997 after having smoked for thirty-eight years. He applauded me that I had stopped smoking because he used to always get on me about smoking and wished that I would quit.