I’m not one to complain about other people’s kids much…. well, to be honest that’s a lie – maybe once in awhile.
The neighbors on my cul-de-sac are really nice people; the wife and I seriously couldn’t have been luckier (except for that one house, with the teenager and his guitar problem...)
We do stuff with them on occasion like wine paired potlucks, block parties with grilled oysters and martini’s, tapas and sangria, pho and some type of asian moonshine (ain’t no hot dogs and Bud light around these parts! Except maybe for the kids…)
Living in L.A. where you can live in a house for 30 years and not even once speak to the people next door, we struck gold.
Then there’s the 4-year-old next door. Now there’s a reason to close the garage immediately after pulling in with the car running, and a reason to lock the front door.
Just today when I got home and got out I hear a soft, but bold voice:
“Where’s Gillian?”
(Me looking up to the sky "God, Jesus,... Oprah...?" Then looking down - the little girl from next door with a very serious look on her face...)
Me: Hi Paige, she’s inside eating dinner and then she has to go to bed….
(She just walks inside the house from the garage…)
Great. How am I going to get rid of her this time?
Now my daughter just turned 2 last month -- is that even old enough to have kids knocking on the door asking “can (blah-blah) come out to play?” Or did I miss that chapter in my parenting manual?
For about 5-10 minutes I hear laughing and feet stomping upstairs from my daughters room (well, it can’t be all that bad, today…)
And then crying,...from mine. Everything was pulled out of every imaginable drawer, closet, new toys (for kids over 3 we never opened that were once hidden and boxed..)
“What’s the matter?”
Daughter: Paige won’t SHARE!....BAD PAIGE!!!
Me: Play nice you two, OK?
Paige: She’s not doing what I’m telling her to do….
Me: That’s because she’s 2 years-old, she doesn’t understand.
Paige: Well that’s why she needs to listen to me!
(pause)
Me: I think I hear your Dad calling you…
(please take the bait..."use the force...")
I walked her back to her house. And then 30 minutes later my daughter starts telling me she wants to play with Paige again.
O.k. fellow parents, help…!
How do you deal with pushy kids like this? The parents are cool, but they always just casually mention after their kid walks into my house “just walk her back over when the kids are done playing.”
I just can’t respond with “No, your daughter opens every imaginable drawer and closet in my house, makes my daughter cry, and I think she’s tracking dog poop under her feet into my house”
“Oh and by the way, are we still making sangria for the Labor day party...?”
