2001
2002
2003
2004
986004418 - 03-30-2001
Kids, Discipline and it's a tough job to be a parent.
"My back teeth are floating."
Today has been surreal to say the least. We get a phone call at 7:30, it's the mother-in-law, wanting my wife to come pick her up and take her to her sisters house. Every Friday, she goes to one of two sisters houses and spends all day cleaning them. Anyway, as the wife is getting ready the baby is crying so I figured she would check on him before leaving. Nope, as I head the door close, he lets out a shrill cry. Dammit! So, grumbling and cursing, I get up, stumble into the kids room and check on the baby. His diaper is soaked, big surprise. This kid is one hell of a pisser. After changing Icebear Jr., I feed him and then I have to hit the bathroom myself. While I'm sitting on the throne, Demonchild stirs, gets up and meanders past the bathroom into the living room. Then about 30 seconds later heads back into his room.
I don't think anything about this until I hear a door open quietly. Up until this time, the baby has been kicking around in his high chair and making noise. Now it's quiet. I'm just about to say something when I hear a door close. I would have sworn it was the front door. WTF? So, I get up, yank up my boxers and dash into the living room. Jr. is still sitting in his high chair, all cheerio encrusted and smiling and the front door is closed, and locked. Just to make sure, I unlock it and open it. I thought maybe Demonchild had gone back into the living room and out the door. Nope, no one there. Hmm...then I decided to check the kids room. Well, their door is still open, so I peek inside. Where's Demonchild?
"Demonchild?" I call out. There's a few seconds of silence and then I hear a muffled "Yeah?" come from the closet. I then ask "Where are you?" As I'm asking, the closet door opens and he sheepishly walks out. The look on his face has all my "daddy-senses" in overdrive. "What were you doing in the closet?" As he looks at me, his lower lip starts protruding and his chin starts quivering. "I had to go pee and you were in the baffroom sooo long..." I didn't even let him finish, "YOU PEED IN THE CLOSET?!" Almost in tears, he gives me a slight nod. As I head around to his side of the bed, he slips by me and runs to the bathroom where he continues to urinate for about 30 seconds. I look in the closet and sure enough, the little wooden rocking chair stacked up on the boxes in the middle of his closet is wet with piss. The little fucker! I was fit to be tied. I immediately started in "Why didn't you TELL me? I would have gotten up! Why did you do that? Why did you go pee in the closet?" He just stood there with this look on his face and I knew then that he wouldn't answer me, he'd just stand and stare and that makes me even madder, so I told him to go to his room and I stormed off into the living room. When the wife got back, I told her everything that happened. And I didn't realize until later, but the little shit got off without even a spanking. I must be slipping or something.
The subject of spanking used to be a touchy one for me. I was watching a show one night about spanking and my mother and sister (who had had my nephew) were both for spanking, I was against. Mainly because I was always the one who had been spanked. But then I had kids of my own and my perspective on the world changed. I'm all for spanking. I looks bad, and I feel like total shit for having to do it, but kids have to understand who is the boss. Demonchild is still a little rebellious at times and pretty soon we're going to have to do something to curb that. The only problem is, nowadays, anybody sees you spanking your kid, whether they saw what he/she did or not will either get in your face about it or will call the Social Services on you. They don't even have kids!
I was watching a Sinbad comedy special on Comedy Central the other night and he was talking about kids and discipline. "People say you shouldn't spank your kids...it teaches them to hit. No, it teaches them to shut the hell up!" Yes, I wish there was a better way to discipline my kids than by spanking them, but you have to stick with what works. There is a fine line between discipline and abuse, however, and too often, I think that line is crossed. Sometimes accidentally, but more often than not, on purpose. There have been a few times where I've been so mad at Demonchild that I was afraid that if I started in on him, I might not stop. Times like that, I just walk away. I ask his mother to handle it and I go collect myself. I love my kids dearly and would do anything, ANYTHING to protect them and keep them from harm, but they also have to respect me as an adult, as their father and as an authority figure. Some times, more often than not, to be honest, I feel like I'm a bad father. I try to do my best, but there are times where everything just builds up and I just crumble under the pressure. Luckily, it's at times like that, that I have my wife. She helps me up and supports me and shows me that I am a good father. Being a parent isn't as easy as my parents made it look.
God, I can't wait until Wednesday. Money! I need money! I hate fuckin' money! But I need money! We've got eveything set up for this goddamned bankruptcy, but the fuckin' lawyer won't start filing anything until we pay him the whole $700. It's been like 6 months since we first went and met with him about it. He probably tossed our file since he hasn't heard from us for so long. On top of that, we're still getting fuckin' calls from creditors. We haven't done our taxes either, yet, that's first priority next week. I'm hoping that our tax return will at least be big enough (but I seriously doubt it) that we can pay the lawyer and get this shit finished. To be honest, I just hope we don't have to fuckin' pay. That would really chap my ass. Plus, I'm fuckin' starving. I'm used to eating fairly well and we've been scrimping the past week and we still have 5 more days to go. Hell, maybe I'll lose some weight though. I'm only 29 years old and I'm feeling like I'm 60. This sucks major wang.
Well, enough of this. I'm going to go and beef up my planet in Planetarion and then I'm going to go home and argue with the wife about what we're having for supper. I can tell you how it will go now.
Me: We need to go to the store for food.
Her: Ok.
Me: What do you want for supper?
Her: Food.
Me: Ok, smartass, what do you really want.
Her: I don't care.
Me: Well?
Her: Whatever you want
ad nauseum.
Well, have a good evening and take care cubbies!
