Let's put it this way... I write this as I ride in the van with my 1-year-old niece and 3-year-old nephew. As far as brats go... these are the well-behaved ones. And to their credit, they have had to tolerate a marked change in elevation accompanied with traveling in a somewhat-crowded minivan for 7 hours (probably 8 by the time this is all said and done.) But yeah... my niece keeps screaming off and on in a rather closed space. Granted, this is a new development that only started about the last half hour before we had lunch (where she pretty much screamed for 30 solid minutes) and probably indicates a desire to be done with all of this... but all caveats aside, I can't handle it. I am literally blaring Metallica as loud as it will go on this laptop so that I don't develop a pounding headache as a result of the stabbing sensations in my forehead that I get every time she screams.
So yeah, that makes my life fun and joy... but I would be remiss if I didn't attempt to make a Hobbesian insight about my 3-year-old nephew's seemingly-schizophrenic alteration between treating his younger sister nicely and taunting/poking/hitting her. And while one could make an argument for him having learned this behavior from other children, I find it perplexing that he would have learned such a behavior and applied it towards a largely non-adversarial relationship. Granted, one could argue some adversity for motherly attention (FREUD!), but I have a hard time seeing how this translates into random acts of unprompted cruelty (albeit infrequent) directed at his helpless and harmless little sister.
All that to say, the point of this little whimsy is that my sister-in-law asked today, "Have you ever considered not having kids?" and I would be lying if I didn't say "Yes... frequently." Especially when I bear in mind that these are good kids.
Posted by Vengeful Cynic at December 20, 2005 09:05 PM | TrackBack