My son is sitting in the family room watching TV. I’m in the kitchen nook area which shares the same wide open space so I’m not technically in another room.

I’m finishing up with my dinner* and look over and ask him, “Have you finished your homework?”

“No.”

“How about you do that.”

“Why are you so mean?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m playing.”

“How about you stop playing, get your homework done, then you can play again.”

“Please stop Dad.”

“Excuse me?”

“Why are you so mean to me?”

Standing up from the table as my voice goes down a few octaves. “Turn off the TV and get your homework.”

His voice goes up in pitch. “Please stop being mean Dad.”

My voice goes even lower, “Now.”

Over the next few hours things disentigrate even further. Screaming, huffing, puffing, crying (some even by my son),  shouting, pressing pencil’s too firmly causing their lead tips to snap off, the wife/mom gets involved, the older sister gets involved, crinkling of assignments and throwing them takes place, curling up into a ball, shaking, shivering, whimpering, and a plethora of tissues are used. Finally at 9:pm I call it quits and tell him to go get ready for bed.

I never laid a hand on my kid but if my kids going to yell at me “Please stop Dad!” you would have thought I would have gotten a few licks in.

Have I reached the crusty crumegeon stage of life? What happened to the good ol’days of beating your children into submission?

It’s not my job to be my child’s friend. It’s my job to make sure they won’t need me in life. Once their an adult, we can become friends, if they so wish. Not until then. Now don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy spending time with them and spoiling them here and there. I admit that a part of me does rejoice in being able to relive a bit of my own youth through their eyes. I just need to remember that while I have 50 years of wisdom on my side, they don’t have that same 50 years when dealing with me. That is unless I can successfully beat it into them. 😛 (dark humor)

*(I don’t actually feed my own children)

This is one of my favorite shirts that I own.

Tootles all

😛