Why are men idiots?
I've always known that husbands could be pretty stupid at times, but I think my oldest brother takes the cake on lamebrain for today.
He wants to stick 10 adults and 8 children on a 14 person pontoon boat this weekend. And what's worse is that only one of the children can swim and only 6 of the adults can swim. Heck one of the kids is just a baby who can barely walk. Two of the kids are absolute hellions and I know that they'll end up knocking one of the other kids in the water. The lake water by the way is on an average of anywhere from 40ft to 200ft deep.
Then he had the gall to tell me that if the kids parents can't watch them well enough that they don't fall off the boat that they don't have any right to be parents. Okay, two of those kids are mine, and I'm not all that worried about them. They are good kids and are really good at minding and scared enough of the water to be careful. But the two hellions are my brother's grandsons. They plow over anyone who gets in their way and don't mind their parents at all. I can just see them knocking one of the other kids off the boat. And I don't give a damn if the kids are wearing life vests. If you go into the water face first, which if you fall off the boat you might very well go that way, you can still end up with enough water in your lungs to drown you. I don't care about me. I'm not gonna drown if I fall in. I know that. But any of the kids can.
And the final kicker. He wants to do this all to celebrate our mom's birthday. My mom is almost 74. She is deathly afraid of boats and open water. She can't swim, and really hates going to the lake to begin with. As far as swimming goes you can get her in a 4ft deep swimming pool and that is about it. She has a bad heart, and suffers from Emphysema. Her lungs lock up in our front yard. What is spending the day on the lake gonna do to her?
Anyhow, when he told me all this I kept saying how bad an idea I thought it was, and how unsafe with all the kids and all and he finally just got huffy and said "fine, we just won't do anything this weekend, and I'll cancel the reservation on the boat." Does this sound like a third grader threatening to take his ball and go home when he doesn't get what he wants? It does to me. What's really sad is that my brother is 52 years old. He should know better.
Heck my other brother, who is younger, and the one that has always been considered the least bright spot in our family, even said 'hell no' when I told him what our oldest brother wanted to do. Three of the kids belong to him. Ages 9, 4, and 1. He knows how dangerous that is. Even he's smart enough to know it's a bad idea. But it's like all my oldest brother cares about is doing what he wants to do and be damned with the rest of us.
Between my mom and my other brother and I we decided that if my oldest brother wants to get a boat and take his grown kids and their kids out on the boat, that they could. But our part of the family isn't even gonna consider it. My kids mean more to me than my brother's hurt ego.
He wants to stick 10 adults and 8 children on a 14 person pontoon boat this weekend. And what's worse is that only one of the children can swim and only 6 of the adults can swim. Heck one of the kids is just a baby who can barely walk. Two of the kids are absolute hellions and I know that they'll end up knocking one of the other kids in the water. The lake water by the way is on an average of anywhere from 40ft to 200ft deep.
Then he had the gall to tell me that if the kids parents can't watch them well enough that they don't fall off the boat that they don't have any right to be parents. Okay, two of those kids are mine, and I'm not all that worried about them. They are good kids and are really good at minding and scared enough of the water to be careful. But the two hellions are my brother's grandsons. They plow over anyone who gets in their way and don't mind their parents at all. I can just see them knocking one of the other kids off the boat. And I don't give a damn if the kids are wearing life vests. If you go into the water face first, which if you fall off the boat you might very well go that way, you can still end up with enough water in your lungs to drown you. I don't care about me. I'm not gonna drown if I fall in. I know that. But any of the kids can.
And the final kicker. He wants to do this all to celebrate our mom's birthday. My mom is almost 74. She is deathly afraid of boats and open water. She can't swim, and really hates going to the lake to begin with. As far as swimming goes you can get her in a 4ft deep swimming pool and that is about it. She has a bad heart, and suffers from Emphysema. Her lungs lock up in our front yard. What is spending the day on the lake gonna do to her?
Anyhow, when he told me all this I kept saying how bad an idea I thought it was, and how unsafe with all the kids and all and he finally just got huffy and said "fine, we just won't do anything this weekend, and I'll cancel the reservation on the boat." Does this sound like a third grader threatening to take his ball and go home when he doesn't get what he wants? It does to me. What's really sad is that my brother is 52 years old. He should know better.
Heck my other brother, who is younger, and the one that has always been considered the least bright spot in our family, even said 'hell no' when I told him what our oldest brother wanted to do. Three of the kids belong to him. Ages 9, 4, and 1. He knows how dangerous that is. Even he's smart enough to know it's a bad idea. But it's like all my oldest brother cares about is doing what he wants to do and be damned with the rest of us.
Between my mom and my other brother and I we decided that if my oldest brother wants to get a boat and take his grown kids and their kids out on the boat, that they could. But our part of the family isn't even gonna consider it. My kids mean more to me than my brother's hurt ego.