Friday the Thirteenth

Days like today make me wonder whether both my children can ever be good on the same days. It seems that one of them always has to take up the mantle of cursed child for the day and refuse to do anything I tell them. Today, Elder was on good behavior and Younger was the one that refused to follow basic instructions and throw tantrums. We still managed to end the day on a good note.

Missus went on her out of town trip for her union, which is probably why Younger was sensitive. We had debated back and forth as to whether we were going to go with her, but in the end decided against it. The weather has been too hot for me to go wandering around our state capitol with the kids. Plus the hotel pool is closed because of COVID, so we decided to stick it out here for the weekend. I was not looking forward to it since Missus called dibs on our car, but thankfully I was able to borrow her mother’s car, as she is unable to drive due to an illness — not thankfully. So we picked up the vehicle after lunch and went back to the house.

I didn’t do a great job of preparing food for the weekend, so I told the girls that we would have popcorn movie night, but first I would bring them to the dollar store for them to spend allowance money on some candy and toys. Plus daddy needed some alcohol. On the way there, since I had neglected to put in an order for groceries, I decided to change the plan and do a bit of grocery shopping instead. Mistake. It’s usually difficult enough taking one of the kids, but the two of them together is just a huge pain in the ass. They both want to hang on the cart, or if I’m not actively pushing it somewhere they want to push it — usually into other people or things. Or they’re touching everything. I noticed some lady giving me the eye as it was apparent I had no control over the two of them. Younger almost tipped the entire cart over as I was paying in the checkout line and that was it. We were going home. This escalation went about as well as expected, but I eventually got her calmed down after I told her we would go back to the dollar store after I put the groceries away. There was no way I was leaving two hundred dollars of cold groceries in a car trunk during hundred degree weather while we spent fifteen minutes in another store. It was the right call.

The second trip out was mostly uneventful. The girls have a tendency to dawdle forever over their choices. I told them they could pick two candies each, but the decision was excruciatingly slow as they went through a dozen choices. When they got back Younger decided she liked Elder’s toys better, and decided to be naughty about it. I can’t win.

The last trip of the day was after dinner, about an hour before sunset. I knew the girls needed some physical activity. I hadn’t taken them to the park in weeks, and it got cool enough once the sun was low that I could make them spend some time outdoors. So we went to the park. Elder wasted no time making friends and running off on her own, but Younger is more shy and wound up coming back to me to push her on the swing and merry-go-round. We stayed out as late as we could, until the sun set and we saw the police come to shut things down. Then, for some inexplicable reason, Younger decided to throw another fit, shutting the door in her sister’s face getting out of the car and then refused to take any of her things out of the car and get cleaned up.

In the end, she wound up falling asleep on me as we laid on the couch. I managed to get them both bathed, and I popped three bags of popcorn while we watched the new Masters of the Universe. By the time the credits rolled on the last episode she was fast asleep.