(no subject)
Since some of my Childfree readers seem to enjoy hearing about my trainwreck relationship with my sister and her son...
I present to you the saga of the Missing Night-Light!
Ah… the infamous Pizza Night. The only one I have ever hosted and probably ever will. The background on this is that for a loooong time now, my family has had a tradition of gathering on Saturday nights for pizza and movies.
About a year and a half ago (July 2003) I moved out of my parents’ house and into one half of a duplex. It’s a two bedroom, and I like it. My fiance didn’t join me until the end of August. At that point I was living alone with my two cats and my dog. Being that it’s a two bedroom, I moved my bed into the master bedroom and used the other bedroom as a computer room and spare bedroom (in case friends stayed over or whatever).
For the purposes of a housewarming party, we set it for a Saturday and made it a pizza and movie night. My cats were locked in my bedroom and I made it clear that noone was to go in there. My dog was leashed for the comfort of family members (so he wouldn’t get into the pizza, and so my nephew wouldn’t be bothered.) At that point, my nephew was… nearly two years old. He could walk, he could talk a little, got into everything. You know the game.
My family consists of myself, my parents, my older brother, and then my older sister, her husband, and her son. All were invited. We put the pizzas in to bake, hung around the kitchen/dining room and talked about things. At some point during that conversation, I spotted my nephew yanking cords out of the entertainment center. Not just the TV cable cord, the power cord, etcetera, but also the cords for my Playstation, the controllers, the VCR, etcetera. I interrupted him, told him that it wasn’t a good thing to do, and pointed him elsewhere. His mother said nothing.
Later we sat down to watch the movie. At some point, I realized that I was alone on the couch with the menfolk. My sister, my mother, and the brat were nowhere to be seen. At that same time I realized that my hallway had gone dark. I got up and went into the hallway to find out what was going on.
Being in a new house - I had been there less than a week at that point -- I had put a nightlight in the wall socket in the hall so I wouldn’t be tripping over things when I had to get up in the night for any reason. (The use of the word “things” also includes my two cats, who seem to think it’s FUN to lie down across the hallway and trip people.) As I rounded the end of the couch I saw that the nightlight was missing. I freaked, because the bulb is known to get hot at times, and while there IS a shield, it’s open at the back. My nephew could have hurt himself in various ways. My nephew is nowhere to be seen, and neither is the light. I begin to wonder “where the hell is everyone?”
Going further, I pass the hall bathroom and notice my nephew pouring shampoo onto my bath mat. I step in, remove the shampoo bottle, and tell him he needs to leave the room. He obliges, getting up and toddling out of the room. Once in the hallway he starts to whimper for his mother. I go a few steps further into the hallway, and look into my computer room. My mother’s sitting on the spare bed, my sister’s sitting in my computer chair, and they are chatting up a storm.
Ooooh I was SO PISSED. I said to my sister, “Your son yanked my nightlight out of the wall and pretty much emptied my shampoo bottle onto my bathmat. What makes you think that you two can sit here and chat, leaving ME the responsibility of keeping an eye on YOUR son?” They both kind of rolled their eyes at me. I told them that they were not welcome to stay in the computer room and that I wanted them to go back out and watch the damn movie.
They eventually left my computer room, and I closed the door firmly. I also closed the bathroom door (it -had- been closed, don’t know who opened it) and basically sat at the end of the hallway watching the movie from there. There wasn’t much else that the kid could do but dive into my dog’s toy bucket and play with the stuff there. My poor dog was driven to distraction by this, but since my sister hadn’t brought any of her son’s toys, I felt bad for the kid and let him continue playing with whatever safe objects he could find.
When the movie was over, everyone was told to take whatever leftover pop or pizza that they wanted, and then they were herded out the door. Someone asked me at a later point when we were going to have pizza night at my house again. I responded with a firm “Never.” I MIGHT change my mind when my nephew, X, is old enough to understand what he should and should not do when visiting a house that is not his own. He’s a polite kid now, at age three, but still. I don’t trust a three year old to wander my house and not break or get into something just because he doesn’t know any better.
Oh, and the nightlight? I found it in my toilet. I had to buy a new one.
I present to you the saga of the Missing Night-Light!
Ah… the infamous Pizza Night. The only one I have ever hosted and probably ever will. The background on this is that for a loooong time now, my family has had a tradition of gathering on Saturday nights for pizza and movies.
About a year and a half ago (July 2003) I moved out of my parents’ house and into one half of a duplex. It’s a two bedroom, and I like it. My fiance didn’t join me until the end of August. At that point I was living alone with my two cats and my dog. Being that it’s a two bedroom, I moved my bed into the master bedroom and used the other bedroom as a computer room and spare bedroom (in case friends stayed over or whatever).
For the purposes of a housewarming party, we set it for a Saturday and made it a pizza and movie night. My cats were locked in my bedroom and I made it clear that noone was to go in there. My dog was leashed for the comfort of family members (so he wouldn’t get into the pizza, and so my nephew wouldn’t be bothered.) At that point, my nephew was… nearly two years old. He could walk, he could talk a little, got into everything. You know the game.
My family consists of myself, my parents, my older brother, and then my older sister, her husband, and her son. All were invited. We put the pizzas in to bake, hung around the kitchen/dining room and talked about things. At some point during that conversation, I spotted my nephew yanking cords out of the entertainment center. Not just the TV cable cord, the power cord, etcetera, but also the cords for my Playstation, the controllers, the VCR, etcetera. I interrupted him, told him that it wasn’t a good thing to do, and pointed him elsewhere. His mother said nothing.
Later we sat down to watch the movie. At some point, I realized that I was alone on the couch with the menfolk. My sister, my mother, and the brat were nowhere to be seen. At that same time I realized that my hallway had gone dark. I got up and went into the hallway to find out what was going on.
Being in a new house - I had been there less than a week at that point -- I had put a nightlight in the wall socket in the hall so I wouldn’t be tripping over things when I had to get up in the night for any reason. (The use of the word “things” also includes my two cats, who seem to think it’s FUN to lie down across the hallway and trip people.) As I rounded the end of the couch I saw that the nightlight was missing. I freaked, because the bulb is known to get hot at times, and while there IS a shield, it’s open at the back. My nephew could have hurt himself in various ways. My nephew is nowhere to be seen, and neither is the light. I begin to wonder “where the hell is everyone?”
Going further, I pass the hall bathroom and notice my nephew pouring shampoo onto my bath mat. I step in, remove the shampoo bottle, and tell him he needs to leave the room. He obliges, getting up and toddling out of the room. Once in the hallway he starts to whimper for his mother. I go a few steps further into the hallway, and look into my computer room. My mother’s sitting on the spare bed, my sister’s sitting in my computer chair, and they are chatting up a storm.
Ooooh I was SO PISSED. I said to my sister, “Your son yanked my nightlight out of the wall and pretty much emptied my shampoo bottle onto my bathmat. What makes you think that you two can sit here and chat, leaving ME the responsibility of keeping an eye on YOUR son?” They both kind of rolled their eyes at me. I told them that they were not welcome to stay in the computer room and that I wanted them to go back out and watch the damn movie.
They eventually left my computer room, and I closed the door firmly. I also closed the bathroom door (it -had- been closed, don’t know who opened it) and basically sat at the end of the hallway watching the movie from there. There wasn’t much else that the kid could do but dive into my dog’s toy bucket and play with the stuff there. My poor dog was driven to distraction by this, but since my sister hadn’t brought any of her son’s toys, I felt bad for the kid and let him continue playing with whatever safe objects he could find.
When the movie was over, everyone was told to take whatever leftover pop or pizza that they wanted, and then they were herded out the door. Someone asked me at a later point when we were going to have pizza night at my house again. I responded with a firm “Never.” I MIGHT change my mind when my nephew, X, is old enough to understand what he should and should not do when visiting a house that is not his own. He’s a polite kid now, at age three, but still. I don’t trust a three year old to wander my house and not break or get into something just because he doesn’t know any better.
Oh, and the nightlight? I found it in my toilet. I had to buy a new one.