My nephew's birthday party
I took the day off work, and my mother and I went to my nephew Ian's birthday party. Not the official one, with loads of yelling seven-year-old boys, but the family one. By and large it was a good party, and I got to see a lot of family-in-law I haven't seen in a long, long time. Ian liked the Star Wars book and the foot-long yellow pen I gave him. (Ian loves yellow, and kids love gigantic stuff, so...) Amazingly, nothing got broken. Usually at least one toy gets busted before a party is over. But then, there were only 4 kids there.
However... two of the kids were pains, and one was driving nearly everyone batshit. The two kids were the spawn of my sister's husband's sister. They run wild, but, grab food, scream and howl, hit, and generally are vile little brats. The worst was the three-year-old girl, who never gave it a damn moment's rest. However, I can't be that angry with the kids - how's someone that young supposed to know right from wrong if their parents never discipline them? And they never do. Never. The girl shoves her plate of cake onto the floor (one of her very frequent tricks) - no punishment. Later on she runs around sticking a big metal fork into everyone else's cake - no punishment, and of course nobody takes the fork from her. She hits and yells - no punishment, not even a hint from Mommy and Daddy that that isn't acceptable behavior. Those brats need to learn the meaning of the word consequences: if you chuck your plate on the floor, then tough shit if you're still hungry. If you jump on rickety chairs and tip them over, then you get hurt. You hit other people, you get yelled at or your hand gets smacked.
It may sound like I'm being intolerant, but it was so bad that half the adults went inside to help in the kitchen rather than stay on the porch with those beasts. Grandpa, who is very laid-back, put the girl in her high chair after dinner was over to restrain her. (Against her mother's will - "I don't want her being restrained.") My sister, who has all the maternal instinct that I lack, commented that the children seemed feral. I believe it's because their parents are doing such a terrible job of raising them. They've trained the kids to ignore them, do what they like, and fly into tantrums at the drop of a hat, because that invariably gets them their way. I don't want to think about what it's gonna be like when they have to go to school.
However... two of the kids were pains, and one was driving nearly everyone batshit. The two kids were the spawn of my sister's husband's sister. They run wild, but, grab food, scream and howl, hit, and generally are vile little brats. The worst was the three-year-old girl, who never gave it a damn moment's rest. However, I can't be that angry with the kids - how's someone that young supposed to know right from wrong if their parents never discipline them? And they never do. Never. The girl shoves her plate of cake onto the floor (one of her very frequent tricks) - no punishment. Later on she runs around sticking a big metal fork into everyone else's cake - no punishment, and of course nobody takes the fork from her. She hits and yells - no punishment, not even a hint from Mommy and Daddy that that isn't acceptable behavior. Those brats need to learn the meaning of the word consequences: if you chuck your plate on the floor, then tough shit if you're still hungry. If you jump on rickety chairs and tip them over, then you get hurt. You hit other people, you get yelled at or your hand gets smacked.
It may sound like I'm being intolerant, but it was so bad that half the adults went inside to help in the kitchen rather than stay on the porch with those beasts. Grandpa, who is very laid-back, put the girl in her high chair after dinner was over to restrain her. (Against her mother's will - "I don't want her being restrained.") My sister, who has all the maternal instinct that I lack, commented that the children seemed feral. I believe it's because their parents are doing such a terrible job of raising them. They've trained the kids to ignore them, do what they like, and fly into tantrums at the drop of a hat, because that invariably gets them their way. I don't want to think about what it's gonna be like when they have to go to school.