March Rants

[Stella]

I need this today.

So earlier in the week, against my better judgement, I agreed that Zach and I would watch my friend's son tonight. She's a particularly good friend and the past month she has made a point of being helpful to us. Now, mind you, I am ready to have my baby any minute and I am going off of massive amounts of medication and my body is having trouble adjusting. She told me that the concert she was going to tonight started around 7PM and ended around midnight, but that she would be here before that. I told her I could handle that as long as I could easily get a hold of her if I needed to. Again, I should have said no because her 11 year old, who I dearly love, is still whinier, more demanding and requires more attention than all three of my small children combined.

So this morning she calls at 8AM and asks if I want to go to a movie. I had a bad night sleep last night so I told her I'd have to take a nap and let her know later. After a several hour nap I was still feeling like crap, so when she called to ask if I could go Zach passed on the message that I was feeling sick and not able to make it. OK, she says, then she and L (another friend) are going to head over to our house to drop off her son and go shopping. This is at 1PM. Not 7PM so she could go to a concert like we agreed, but 1PM, 6 HOURS EARLIER! so she can go shopping with L. No asking if this is OK, she's already on her way. And she's still going to the concert tonight. So now instead of watching this kid for 4-5 hours, most of it after my kids go to bed, we are watching him for 10-11 hours. I essentially let it go because I don't have the energy to deal with confrontation today.

When she gets here I am having a blood pressure spell that requires medication and causes a severe dizzy spell. She still leaves the kid. So now I have been listening to him whine and fight with my daughters all day long, my husband has accomplished about half of what he had planned for the day because he's had to babysit this kid and I've been a complete physical mess.

The kicker? I'm sitting at the computer during a moment of actual consciousness today and the kid, who my husband had put to work helping him move stuff from the basement to the garage after he whined one too many times about being bored, says to me, "It must be easy being a woman and getting to sit on your butt." <<< That's me after he said that. And quite frankly, he's lucky this wasn't him. >>> If he were an adult male and said that to me it might have been.

[fidgiegirl]

That sounds like a really Aspergers-y thing to say to someone. Sorry you had to deal with this!!!

[AnneM]

Wow! I don't think I would have handled it as well as you did. Someone who did that to me wouldn't be my friend for much longer.

[Rosemary]

Wow. I can't imagine imposing on any of my friends in that way. I wouldn't ask a 9-mo pregnant friend to babysit for me, and I wouldn't drop off my child hours and hours earlier than planned even with a friend in normal, perfect health! How incredibly thoughtless and inconsiderate. Do you feel like you can address the situation should it happen again? ...and as to what he said? Wow, just can't believe it. Clearly not raised to be cognizant of other people's conditions.

[Stella]

Thanks for the sympathy! I'm taking this as a lesson in saying no when I know that I should. I could have prevented this.

The evening got better. The kid realized that he had hit a nerve with me and was truly sorry. He straightened out after that and we had a pretty good time. He has a lot of issues but he knows I'm one of the people who really cares about him, so we get along pretty well overall. We watched an episode of River Monsters on netflix, his favourite show, and we made up.

[babr]

my rants this month are about people driving too fast and i cannot believe since our state Michigan said no smoking in any public establishment that there are cigarette butts everywhere; its terrible; isn't there something else you could do; put it out; make sure its out and then pop it in a baggie; anything but throwing it on the ground grrrr

[Simpler at Fifty]

My rant today is about people that do not clean the snow off their car windows and turn their headlights on when they drive in a storm. We got 5" of snow last night. Heavy wet snow. It takes less than 1 minute (I timed myself today!) to wipe snow off your car. Hopefully this is the last snow until November and by then they will have forgot this small bit of common sense.

[redfox]

OMG. Boundaries & the lack thereof are all over the place today... my workplace has lousy, hard-to-discern boundaries, and I am always tripping over them. Being the new kid after 8 years of a small staff. And when you're the 5th of 5, it is obvious when boundaries are transgressed - especially the unspoken ones, which I hate.

That kid you took care of, Stella - what sexist BS. And his mother - she took advantage of you in a very uncharitable way.

[Yppej]

Why can't wisdom come with wisdom teeth?

[babr]

oh wait heres another one; why can't people clean up after their dogs; someones dog; we live in a condo complex is pooping on our lawn; i think i know who it is; a neighbor who like all the other people in the condo don't clean up after their dogs! it drives me nuts!!!!