Monday, April 21, 2008

Storm Warning

Thing 2 is giving me the business end of a serious hissy fit at the moment. I have committed the egregious sin of staying out later than she expected, and then refusing to drop what I am doing right this minute and drive her to the mall to buy some clip-on earrings. Apparently, it is my only role in this life to service her every whim at a moments notice, and I suck at it. (Why anyone would choose to buy clip-on earrings at all is anybody's guess, let alone right now.)

I am well accustomed to having Thing 2 pissed off at me; it has been an ongoing phenomenom since the day she was born. I swear she looked at me at the first available opportunity and said "oh yeah, you? are going to give me nothing but trouble". And she's pretty much held that opinion since; Thing 2 has generally regarded her family as "support staff" all her life, None of us are terribly co-operative about that, which only sends her further into a snit. (Which, I will admit, is a bit like coming in close contact with a tornado: scary and thrillling, all at the same time.)

I can understand that children have very little control over their lives, and the frustration must be overwhelming at times, but jeeze-louise, I have very little control over my life either, and it serves me not at all to piss off the people on who's co-operation my very existance depends. (I guess at least I get to dive into the gin when the going gets rough.)

In the past few weeks she has been miffed that:

  • nobody told her we were on daylight savings time
  • her sister was watching television
  • she had to have a shower
  • she was expected to take out the recycling
  • it was colder than expected in the morning
  • we were out of popcorn

Now, don't get me wrong, Thing 2 can be, and frequently is, a charming, delightful, good-natured child who is a pleasure to have around. But at the moment she is being buffeted by some of life's ups and downs, and she's having a bit of a tough time with that. I'll cut her a bit of slack, but if I'm going to be her staff, I think I deserve a raise.

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