"Oops"

Walking by the sixteen year-old's room and for the third day in a row it was a) a mess b) the bed wasn't made and c) there was no sheet on the bed (gross).

"Alex," I said "your room is still a mess and you haven't fixed your bed."

"Oops," I heard him say in  a dazed, disinterested, teenage type voice from the living room couch.

"Did you just say 'oops?' " I asked as I walked into the living room to confront the lethargic body snatcher that had invaded my precious baby boy years ago.

"Did I?" he said, glancing over at his brother for confirmation.

"Don't ask him," I said.  "you know what you said."

*crickets*

"Just so we're clear," I said in by best superior, you-are-about-to-get-a-vocabulary-lesson-so-you-better-pay-attention voice, "Oops, is for when you spill something, run into somebody on accident or drop something. It is NOT for when you have been told for the last three days to clean your room, you still haven't done it, your mom walks by, notices and calls you out on it. When this happens you cannot say 'oops,'  like it was an accident or a mere oversight on your part. An appropriate response, the only acceptable response, would and should be 'I'll go and do that right away, I am so sorry I have neglected my responsibility so horribly.'

"Am. I. Clear?"

"Um, yeah."

"Do you understand that this is not an 'oops' moment?"

"Yes," he said as he reached over for his soda and knocked it over...

"Oops."

*sigh*