08/24: Bat!

When I was about 5 or 6
we had a bat in our house.
I remember my mom shrieking to us kids
that we needed to run to our rooms and
close our doors tightly behind us.
I went in my room and waited
and shortly my mom came into my room
to tell me what was going on and to keep me company.
As she slipped in my room,
I saw my dad running around the house with a fishing net.
My mind has now kind of filled in some of the gaps
by guessing what my dad was doing
depending on what I know of him now.

I guess, as I've grown up with my parents
and gotten to know them a little more as people,
it is funny to think of the situations they faced
while raising my brother and I.
I mean, it all seems like an imperfect system
that you go into without a clue as to what you are doing.
Can anyone really know what to expect as they raise children?
It seems like a magnificent poker game
and every parent is holding their cards
and trying not to have their children call their bluff
on how scared-shitless they are during the whole gammit.
My parents have done a great job
and I think I am, for the most part,
a well-adjusted young woman.
It just amuses me, is all, I guess.