Damn, lazy-ass dads.

J helps out a lot with the kids. Apart from the usual grumblings about who's turn is it to get up with a crying child or an early riser, we do alright. J changes diapers, feeds them, puts them down for naps or to bed at night, plays with them, disciplines the toddler and backs me up in discipling the toddler, and lets me escape for a few hours here and there. I have a great deal.

But when we have guests come and the father doesn't do much at all, then I think J starts to wonder if he does too much. Jim's sister and her family were here earlier in the week. They have two boys who are four and six and totally run wild. For the first few days, Daniel had a ball playing with them, but when they wouldn't stop trying to pick him up and pulling him around by his arm, he got kind of sick of it and spent the last day they were here not letting J out of his reach.

J's BIL is OK as a dad and does a fair amount with the boys, but sometimes, he just disappears. He'll vanish upstairs to take a nap and just leave the boys roaming the house. When he doesn't feel like disciplining them or watching them anymore, he'll just check out.

It'd be nice to be able to do that wouldn't it?

J and I spent the several days they were with us saying, "No." Over and over. Can I hold the baby? No. Can we watch Tom & Jerry? No. Can I get Daniel up from his nap? No. After a while, we didn't even try to be nice about it anymore. I ended up yelling at the oldest cousin on the last day they were here. I was looking for Daniel and Tim (the six year old) found him in some other part of the house. All of a sudden I heard Daniel crying and saying, "Noooooooooo." I went in the room where they were to find Tim dragging Daniel across the floor by his arm. Idiot.

Of course, his mom's response was, as she shook her head, he does the same thing to his brother. Well, here's a thought: maybe teach him not to do that. Maybe?

This family is really loud, too. They can't do anything quietly. at all. My family tends to be overly cautious about being loud, so I can't tell if my expectations are unreasonable or not. But I just kind of think that when your kids wake up at 6:00 a.m. and are running around the upstairs, that it would be more considerate to just take them downstairs than lay in your bed with the door open and let them come in and out talk to them. And maybe, you could ask them to at least try to be quiet when they are upstairs at night after others are already asleep. I know that kids will be kids and don't always do what they are told, but at least, make an effort.

Anyway, I'm feeling really ranty at the moment and I just want to get it off my chest so maybe I'll feel less wound up about things. We are going on vacation to the beach on Monday and I'm worried that it's going to be more stressful than not. Oh well.