Surly

Surly (sur'le) adj. -li*er, -li*est. Bad-tempered and rude. -sur'li*ness n. Yes, that pretty much describes Child.

The rule in our house is that there is no food or drink allowed in the living room. Husband and I are above this particular rule, but only after the boys have gone to bed. It seems that every day I need to remind children of this rule as I chase them back to the kitchen with their food. Today was no exception. I chased AJ out of the living room with his peanut butter sandwich; TJ's banana peel was lying on the couch so he had to properly dispose of it. I left the room for 3 minutes and when I came back in to the living room, AJ was stuffing the last of his sandwich into his mouth as he's sitting on the couch...and CJ was blatantly sitting on the couch enjoying his sandwich. I know it's only natural for children to test the rules and even break them - I did it all the time - but I wasn't so inane as to do it when Muther was still around. Bruther and I broke the rules when we were home alone. You need to have some smarts about you.

It's the attitude that comes with the surliness. Child is very good at making me feel imbecilic. I'm just crabby today and catching Husband's cold so things are bothering me more. But I feel like since Child has been working with the guys on the farm, he feels that he's better than the rest of us. Child comes and goes as he pleases - never stopping to even take off his work boots - and when I ask him to do a simple task, such as give the dogs food and water, I'm met with such opposition and grief that I want to choke somebody. And Husband isn't around very much to help me out in this area...don't get me wrong...he's great when he is here, very supportive and doesn't let the boys give me any crap, but most of the time I'm by myself. And it gets lonely.

So that's my whine for today. Somebody pass the cheese, please.