Friday, September 08, 2006

I really hate it when...

I have to punish my kids. Don't you hate it when your kids try to play you and your hubby off one another? Jeff just pulled the biggest bonehead move. He came home from school and wanted a friend to come over. Said friend couldn't spend the night, since he has something to do early tomorrow, but could stay till about 10 tonight. Says I, "You need to take care of your chores first, then come let me know and you can call your friend back." Chores today consisted of cleaning Jules the rat's cage and pulling the trash cans up from the curb. Nothing too drastic. Jeff, however, takes this to mean that I'm probably going to tell him no, so he calls Bob at work to ask him. After the chores are done, he says to me, "Dad says Brian can come over if it's ok with you." Huh?! Why did he call his dad if I'm right here? (Turns out Bob wanted to know the same thing).

Neither Bob nor I could have given a rat's ass (pardon my french, Jules) if his friend came over - we love this particular friend. But, you see, Jeff was sure I was going to tell him that his friend couldn't come over. (Why, I don't know - maybe because I stayed home sick from work today). So he called Bob, thinking that if Dad said it was ok, I'd go along with it. Sheesh. Do these kids think that their parents never talk to each other? Does he not remember being warned about 'splitting' (playing us off each other)? The consequence is an immediate 'no' for whatever he wanted to do. Duh.

So now Jeff is off sulking and muttering about how unfair we are and how awful his life is. Nobody understands him and what he's going through. He thinks we never had to go through this when we were kids. Oy. Have I said what a Drama Queen he is? Happy happy joy joy. I love adolescence. Do your kids do this to you?

3 People Gabbed:

Rosie said...

Lori, been there...done that! My boys are 16 and 19 now so we are quite a bit beyond the splitting thing, but elementary and jr high years...Oy! Because I was much more likely to say "yes" than their Dad, he was always immediately suspicious when they came and asked him for something. Fortunately, he and I had a system worked out.

Our kids don't know how their pouting, moaning, groaning and whining are worse punishment for us than if we'd just given in. Parenting ain't for wussies.

Amie Stuart said...

no, because we're divorced LOL
But the almost 13 year old is on my sh*te list right now *sigh*

Lori said...

Amie, I'd think that would be prime ground for splitting. One parent says no, so you go to the other one.

That is a really crappy age, huh?