Retraction and Correction...Kind Of

Yesterday, I published the story of my youngest son’s birth…in honor of his birthday.

He asked me to.

I assumed he wanted me to be honest.

The following story will illustrate that he did not.

I’m still sticking by my version of the story…he was a new-born; what could he possibly remember?

The night before the blessed birthday, the then-9yo and his brother spent the night with my parents.

I gave them the (birth)day off of school in honor of the day. (Well, kind of…they went on a field trip to the Indiana State Museum and they still had some small things to accomplish…so in actuality it WAS a school day but don’t tell them. They think it wasn’t. And I’m not here to burst any bubbles.)

So…when I dropped them off on Monday evening, I told the 9yo (he’s now the 10yo, but he was still 9 on Monday…just go ahead and get used to that because that’s what it will be from here on out…try to keep up) that he would want to read my blog on Tuesday morning.

He doesn’t make a habit of reading it (at least that I know about), so I wanted to make sure he knew it was a special one about him.

Not only does he not make a habit of it…I’m not sure he ever has. OK, maybe once or twice.

He knows ABOUT things of which I write, but I’m not sure if he actually reads the posts.

Might want to check into that, as I think about it.

Before 9am yesterday morning, I received a phone call. “Um mom? ‘Hell-on-Earth’?”

“Well, good morning! And Happy Birthday!

I had actually forgotten that I had put that in there.

“‘Hell-on-Earth’? Really?”

“Well, Buddy, it was a difficult time…you were not an easy baby.”

“Really? ‘Hell-on-Earth’?!?  So does that make me Satan?”

“Well, no, of course not! I think you know what I mean…it was really hard for those first few months…it was what I imagined Hell might be like.”

“Nice, Mom…”

“I’m sorry, Darling…but it is kind of true.”

“Ok…we made Beignet for breakfast today.”

So…even though it appears that all is forgiven, I felt that because he clearly felt that he was being smeared by the press, I should offer some sort of retraction and correction:

It was not “Hell-on-Earth” after he was born…it just SEEMED like it.

If it’s pure truth, is this considered libel?

Him with his birthday breakfast Beignet...in his Uncle Si pose. We see that pose a lot, "Jack"...