Poor Grace. All she wants is someone to herd. She’s like an Australian shepherd without a job. She’s a girl without a younger sister to boss around, a babysitter in search of a baby, a bored, bored, bored 7-year old. Bored.
Today she was outside with her 12-year old brother. All seemed well. The sun was shining. She reported that they were playing a “really fun game.”
And then they weren’t.
I noticed through the kitchen window that she has assumed the pouting posture: arms folded against chest, head down, stomping feet leading her behind the deck. And her brother looked nonchalant.
I knew it was bad news. But I had hope that they’d work it out. (I am foolishly optimistic at the oddest times.)
Eventually, the patio door slid open and she came through, sobbing, rubbing her eyes with a fist and explaining through gasps the grave injustice that her brother had perpetrated against her.
He put a metal thing on the tire swing.
A METAL THING! On the TIRE SWING!
And?
“And I told him I didn’t want it there and he didn’t take it off.”
Blank stare. And?
“AND HE ACTED LIKE HE COULDN”T SEE IT . . . even though I did THIS!” (Insert pointing gesture.)
Huh.
She resumed dramatic sobbing.
Eventually she removed the metal thing (the metal thing?!) but she could not get over the personal slight, the nerve of him to put on the metal thing and NOT REMOVE IT, how DARE HE!?
“He didn’t say he was sorry!”
I sighed, yanked open the patio door and called him over. “Please, Zach, tell her how sorry you are for not removing the metal thing . . . (and make it sound like you actually mean it!).”
He did.
She sort of accepted the apology but still cried, still rubbed her fist into her grimy face.
I suggested that if she needed to continue crying about it, she could go to her room.
I did offer a hug.
I tried to understand the gravity of the situation, but, alas, I did not.
How many days is Summer NoBreak, anyway?
Actual Unretouched Photo 
Poor Grace. Oh wait — poor Mel! lol. Here’s hoping shepherdabout come along real quick-like. Sometimes I lament only having one child (especially since she has the audacity to fully claim her legal adultness and take off for a month this summer to tour and sing with a band)…but there are definite perks – I never had to listen to sibling squabbles.
Toodles!
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Hm…maybe I should wait until I’ve had my coffee before posting comments, eh? That first sentence shoud read “Here’s hoping something sheherdable comes along real quick-like”. Shepherdable — I made that up. I think.
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Oh ha! This sounds like my house, except my bossy-boots daughter is 9 and her little brother is nearly 5. Oh, and does she boss him around, and mother him, and make him crazy. And then he does things like your 12-year-old did, and she has a conniption with many dramatic tears and flailing about. And she will NOT go to her room to finish crying, she’d much rather stomp around and bang things and huff and puff and be dramatic in front of me.
Good times.
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Oh, no! A metal thing!! Clearly drastic measures were called for. Perhaps she was confusing the tire swing with the microwave?
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have you been letting Grace watch too much HGTV’s Next Design Star?
I think so. Maybe Zach should watch it with her next time, then he will so understand that metal does not go with rubber. Ppppplease. It goes with wood, rubber is only good for tires and those cushy things on the bottom of chairs, sofas and such. Gosh!
yeah, summer is here! for real!
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You can tell just how bored a kid is by how much they amp up the drama, and/or how intense the sensitivity to an offense.
It’s going to be a loooooooooong summer.
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