The Summer of Their Discontent
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Joy of Less
By Debby Johnson

Things are only impossible until they’re not.
~Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

It started out as the summer that I officially became the worst mother in the world. Don’t believe me? Just ask my four children who were left home alone together over a long summer vacation. They already knew that there’d be no excursions to a pool and no trip to an amusement park. I had to work all summer so they were staying home. And the story gets even worse.

As a single parent, money was always an issue. So, when the June cable bill arrived reflecting yet another rate increase there was only one solution. I cancelled our cable service. Okay, it seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, I could just hook up the antenna, right? Wrong. Apparently, hooking up the antenna was well beyond my technical abilities. Now, I had no television combined with four cranky children at home during the heat of the summer. Even the air conditioner was temperamental. (Keep reading)