Junkyard

Today I finally bit the bullet and invited the neighbour kids in to play. I had some reservations. The older, a boy, is often teasing other kids. The last time Bear and this boy played together Bear came home calling me a poo-foo. Grrrr. Bear has been lonely for a playmate and since my busted up neck and I are a write-off I thought "Hey, what the heck?" WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING!?

The entire time the boy was here I was comforting my sensitive Bear. The boy didn't want to play what he wanted to play. The boy was kicking at him. Sigh. The boy's sister came over after she had finished her bath. She wanted to jump alone on the bouncy castle, because she was afraid. Fair enough. Then the boy complained to whole time that his sister had a long turn. I spent a lot of time helping them through disagreements.

Then, there was the tattletale. If there is one thing that drives me up the wall its tattling. The little girl could've won an award for excellence in reporting today. I had a full play by play of the goings on, with updates every five minutes. It was "brother this, baby that, Bear did this". It was wearing on me, more so because I am so not used to it. Bear is pretty tolerant of his brother, or any kids for that matter.

Bear had asked if he could watch a movie, so I said yes, and the kids chose Superman. Maybe just five minutes later the little girl said, "This is stupid and boring. And the baby is sitting beside me." I love how kids can take a one syllable word and whine it into a four syllable word.

At this point the boy asks if he can play in Bear's room. I tell him he should ask Bear, who said yes. Then Bear asks "Please stay and watch this part." The boy looked at him and said "No!" and ran off.

I left the little dude in the room for five minutes. I could hear playing going on, and it sounded like...... well like..... playing. I heard a bit of a crash, so I went in to check it out. I have never been so pissed off in my life. He took EVERY. SINGLE. THING. out of their bins and dumped them onto the floor. He took The Very Hungry Caterpillar game and scattered its pieces. That game has over 40 pieces! He pulled all the books off the shelf. He dismantled the playmobil, including some hinges off a castle. My first impulse was to chuck him out of my house. He is way too old to do something like this. Bear is near four and knows better.

I tried so hard to be a gracious hostess. My neck hurt. I was sick of the tattling, the squabbling and the hurt feelings. So I said (maybe a little too firm) "I think you need to go home." Ouch. I walked him to our door and luckily his Mama was knocking on the door. She had dumplings that she made for us. And I felt like the biggest asshole in the world. I should have shown more grace.

I'm sure my mom would get a kick out of this story. When I was about 3 my friend Brad and I (well I blame him) invented a game called junkyard. One of us would shout "Lets play junkyard!" and would proceed to haul all things out off the shelves and out of the toy box. Games were dismantled, blocks scattered, and crayons thrown about. I think we even took the pictures off the wall one time. I was much to young too tackle cleanup all by myself and I sure don't recall Brad sticking around to help.

I don't remember getting spanked for it. Mom just cleaned it up. I wish I had these thoughts as I grumbled and cussed through my cleanup. It sure would have made it easier.