When Anand gets frustrated with being asked to do something like oh, gosh, wash the Nutella off his hands, he’s started getting snarky in response. “What-ever.” And I have this weird reaction to it — on the one hand, the rudeness is super-irritating; we don’t talk that way to each other in this family. On the other hand, he’s getting this from his Youtube gamer videos, I’m sure, and it’s sort of funny hearing teen language / tone coming out of a 7-year-old; hard to take too seriously.
On the third hand, it’s so hard for Anand to be good at camp, and he’s really working at it, so I feel like I ought to cut him some extra slack at home, where it’s safe to act out a little. On the fourth hand, Kevin was sick today, I worked really hard on various things on the computer as well as doing two loads of laundry, a huge sink of dishes, feeding everyone, etc., and I am emotionally kind of a mess about writing these days, so I need my children to behave well or I will snap.
Feeling grateful that we have enough space that I can send them upstairs when I can’t deal with them anymore. Going to watch some Stargate and self-soothe while cooking a chicken curry, which is comforting and mindless, the sort of thing I can do in my sleep.
And yes, I made him wash his hands.