My youngest son, Jerry, can be the sweetest boy imaginable. However, he can be rotten in an instant, especially if he's overtired from a sleepover. He had two sleepovers in a row last weekend. This gave Paul and me a nice, quiet couple of days, but boy, did we pay a price for that later.
Jerry starts fighting with his brother on the ride home from his friend's house. Despite having two captain's chairs and a bench seat in the back of the van, he has to pick the chair PJ is sitting in. "PJ, it's my turn to sit where I want!", he yells, kicking his brother. The scuffle continues until Paul and I are both yelling and threatening to drop him off on the side of the road somewhere. "You both like PJ more than me!", he declares.
After we arrive home, Jerry spies a job application for Dunkin' Donuts on the counter. "That's not fair!", he shouts. "PJ's going to get rich, and he'll have more money than me!" I tell him that when he's older he can get a job, too, and get out of my hair. "PJ gets to do everything!", he grumbles, kicking a dog toy across the living room. He proceeds to look over PJ's shoulder while PJ is filling out the application. This, of course, causes another scuffle and screamfest, until I yell at them both to go outside and play. I can still hear the yelling, but it's now muted by the walls of the house.
After a movie, PJ and Paul drive to Dunkin' Donuts to submit his application. I'm preparing dinner, and I ask Jerry to wash a popcorn bowl while I'm cooking. "That's not my bowl! That's PJ's bowl! PJ doesn't have to do anything!", he hollers angrily. "Jerry!, I say. "I don't ask much of you, but if I ask you to wash a lousy popcorn bowl I expect you to do it! You have five minutes to wash it, or you won't go to basketball tryouts tomorrow." I set the timer. He stomps over to the sink, turns on the cold water, grabs the scrubber and starts spinning the bowl crazily around the sink, getting water everywhere. I give him a whack and send him to his room until dinner is ready.
After a good night's sleep, he'll become my cuddly Jear Bear again. He's such a sweet kid when he's well rested. I really don't know if the break from Jerry was worth the hell we went through when he came back home overtired. Maybe next time we'll give him a sedative when he gets home....
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2 comments:
I love the middle material, but it's not set up clearly yet. Are we getting the effects of the sleepovers or examples of rottenness? There is a small difference worth making clear in the intro; the outro further confuses the issue because it sounds like an effect summary ("our payment for a few nights of peace was an overtired kid who came down with a cold, which aggravated his asthma, which in turn made him incredibly grumpy.") but the material in the paper does not actually include the cold or asthma.
So, a little clarification--
Very clear now, glad to take it.
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