Okay – so this is not a Snapshot…it is a ‘Therapy’ session whereby I complain about something current to get it off my chest…because I am very precious no-one wants me to go mad!
Last night, one of my good friends (Friend A) visited town with her husband and 2 children. We hadn’t seen each-other for about 3 years, and I was looking forward to seeing her and the family. I had invited them over to our place for dinner. A mutual friend of ours (Friend B) discovered that Friend A was coming to town and asked if she could come along to dinner as well. That’s perfectly fine because Friend B is lovely.
Then Friend B said that she’d also be bringing her 2 children (Devil Children) and her MOTHER along. This would be perfectly fine if her children were not Devil Children and if her mother would stop talking (about herself)! Friend B’s children (bless them) do not understand the concept of playing socially. They leap on and off sofas. Hang off curtains. Throw shoes. Hit other children when they think no-one is watching (and if they get caught by an adult, pretend it was a big accident). I really do not like having them inside my house or near other children. In fact I do not like to be within a 10km radius of them.
Then Friend B, being the lovely person that she is, said, why don’t we have the dinner at her place, and that way, at least her children will not wreak a path of destruction in my house. We agreed and shifted the dinner to her place. All okay so far. I was very grateful.
SO we went to her house and our 6 children started playing together in the back yard. Fine. Then Devil Child 1 unlatched the back gate and all the children escaped into the bushland behind Friend B’s house. And her dog escaped too. Then Friend B’s mother started howling about all the children missing (we could see them from the kitchen window – so it wasn’t that dire). So we all ran out into the bushland to gather up the children. Managed that pretty quickly. Then we discovered that the dog had vanished, so the big brave men-folk ran around the bushland looking for the dog. Found it and brought it home. No one noticed that Devil Child 2 had brought some choice killing sticks into the house to beat other children with. After he succeeded in making 3 children cry (including his brother, Devil Child 1) the sticks were confiscated.
Then we all sat down to our dinner – lovely food procured from a local take-away. All was well until Devil Child 2 decided to rub his dinner into the sofa and sit on it. His mother took him away to change his pants. Then Devil Child 1 decided to jump up and down on the same sofa. There were anguished screams from the adults as the brave and strong men-folk tackled Devil Child 1 and held him down until his mother came back.
Somewhere in between all the madness, I was trying to catch up with Friend A. We were screaming at each other (nicely) trying to be heard over the din of the children, and also trying to keep our own children under control (and the 4 of them behaved pretty normally). Then Friend B’s mother (who has never met Friend A before) inserted herself into our conversation and proceeded to share the stories of all her ‘very successful’ children and grand children and all the stories of her own life. This would be fine – except that we were there to catch up with EACH-OTHER after 3 years.
Yes, I am selfish – I can see it as I type this. I should have felt more supportive of Friend B and her Mother. I should have gritted my teeth and smiled through her Devil Children’s antics. But I didn’t. I kept a frozen smile on my face and kept quiet. I felt despondent and pissed off. And I remembered why I hadn’t managed to see Friend B for about a year – despite us living very close to each other. Which leads me to the conclusion…
Hell is other people’s children (and mothers). :roll:
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