The Queen's Rambles

I am so irked with my neighbor’s kids. I am not in a good mood today anyway, but these kids have been rubbing me wrong for months.

When they first moved in I was really excited because they seemed nice and they have involved parents. And they are nice on the surface. But they are also human beings and human beings are not perfect.

There is a 9 year old girl (let’s call her Jane) and a 6 year old boy (let’s call him Henry). He’s in first grade, so at least we don’t have to deal with them being in class together.

The parents are nice people, but they definitely have a different attitude towards life than we do. The dad is really short and very muscular. Think classic Napoleon complex. He has to prove he’s a macho man and wants his son to be tough. You know the type. He brags about not taking crap from anyone and talks about his gun.

So his son is tough, at least when it comes to dishing it out. I’ve seen him full on kick Erik in the stomach, punch him in the face, throw him on the ground. You get the idea. He’s good at fighting because his dad teaches him fighting moves and expects him to practice. Erik always wants to fight, but this kid is way too intense and Erik is finally learning to opt out sometimes.

Of course Erik tries to dish it out as well. He’s just not very good at it. They BOTH start crying when the other gets the upper hand. I usually tell them to either suck it up or quit fighting. Today I yelled at both of them and told them I didn’t want to see their bodies touch each other or Erik had to come in. Then they both cry that I’m mean. So frustrating.

I could handle this level of annoyance, but the big sister kicks things up a notch. I guess she’s just doing what big sisters do and defending her brother, but I’m sick of it. She’s constantly tattling on Erik. She even tried to get one of the safety patrol boys involved in this tattling. She gets really pissed when I don’t instantly punish Erik for picking on her poor, poor little brother. She doesn’t understand that they are equally at blame with all the fighting non-sense and that her brother is more than capable of taking care of himself. Half the time she tattles, I’ve seen the whole exchange and her brother started it. I will not get mad at Erik for defending himself.

Today Erik took his pogo stick outside and I was helping him try to use it. Henry was there and we told him he could have a turn, but then his mom came out and he had to go somewhere.

When they got back, I was down at the park with Elsa and Erik was at home in the bathroom. Jane ran up to me and demanded that Henry get a turn on the pogo stick. I told her that he could have a turn later, when I was at the house, but that wasn’t good enough. She became very rude and pouty, telling me that it wasn’t fair to promise him something and then not give it to him. I told her that I was not leaving the park to go get the pogo stick and he could have a turn the next time we have it out. Ugh. As if I am going to re-arrange my whole life so an annoying kid can have a turn on the freakin’ pogo stick.

And now Elsa is back from her bath and crawling all over me, so I better hit post.