There’s a Mouse in my House

It was 2:00AM. My teenagers were up late because they do not have school today. The 15-year-old woke us with a shrill voice, “Can one of you come downstairs?”

“Why?” I was still not fully awake.

“There’s a mouse under the couch!”

We recently moved to a new house closer to town. Our kids spent most of their lives living in a more rural setting where a mouse in the house was a common occurrence. When they were younger, it never seemed to be a big deal. Apparently, when you are a teenager and you witness one run under the couch at 2:00AM, it’s an emergency.

“Leave it alone,” I said.

“So you’re not coming downstairs?”

*Sticking head under pillow, “No.”

My wife and I searched under the couch this morning, but alas, the mouse had moved on. When the kids finally woke today, they shared a short video they recorded (from a safe distance, of course–because they understand the vicious nature of a mouse on the loose ).

Teenagers are funny (at least mine are). They feign toughness and fearlessness so often but watch a mouse skitter across the living room floor, and they dart upstairs as though someone knocked on the front door with an axe.