Hee!

Check out this entry in small_town's journal - giant humongous meteorITE found in Kansas! LOL

Funnier than the whole meteorite in Kansas part (it doesn't glow green, I saw a picture of it on Today this morning) is the part where everyone calls it a meteorite.

Breaking up is hard to do

I came *this* close to stepping in and stopping two "good mothers" from mothering in a situation last night. I'm still amazed at what happened.

The wedding reception I attended was for a coworker. She got married two weeks ago in New York, with 30 people in attendance. This was the big shindig so her dad could spend lots of money and show her off.

Well, I went to the restroom to refresh my lipstick. All of the small girls were in there, plus the bride, sister of the bride and stepmother of the bride. Apparently the introduction of the bride and groom was supposed to happen shortly, so the bride was reapplying makeup. The little girls, on the other hand, were fighting.

Due to the marriage, coworker got a couple of stepdaughters. One was home sick. The other (Georgie*), therefore, is in a group of people she doesn't know well, except for Vickie*, another coworker's daughter. Vickie is the kind of kid that has never been in a socially awkward situation and will never know a stranger. And doesn't care particularly either.

Well, seems Georgie doesn't want to go out for the introduction. She won't say why, but she's upset about something. (She's also smiling way too much for someone supposedly upset.) Coworker naturally tells her she's going out, or her dad will come in and get her. (I love the way my coworker parents. No kids of her own, but she doesn't brook any argument and kids do what she says.) Georgie has an audience, though, and so she's going to milk it. She declares the reason she's upset is because the stepmother of the bride's nieces looked at her mean. *eyeroll*

The fun starts when stepmother of the bride starts telling Georgie that she's known those three girls all their lives, and they don't have a mean bone in their bodies. (Really? Most kids in a clique with a newcomer present they feel resentful of - cause Georgie is one of the new grandchildren - are going to, at best, have trouble figuring out how to include her in the group. At worst they are going to actively exclude her.) Now, the tone being used is to automatically take the other girls' side. And "reason" is being used. Then sister of the bride steps in and starts "reasoning" with regards how the girls really didn't mean to look at her mean, yadda yadda.

Dude. Took me five seconds to get out of there, because I wanted to step in and say "Georgie, it's probably a misunderstanding. So we're all going to forget it now and be nice to one another, and we're all going out there to celebrate your dad and {coworker}'s wedding."

And then later it would be coworker's responsibility (and her husband) to talk to Georgie about the incident and deal with it with Georgie. Because it's entirely possible there was a mean look. But those three girls aren't going to cop to it and Georgie needs to know how to ignore them and be the better person. Plus Georgie needs to deal with the fallout of being whiny and refusing to take part in something. (Georgie, by the way, plays off her dad's guilt from when he and her mom got divorced. So the child does know how to manipulate adults.)

But man, don't, as an adult, stand there and take sides when it's an issue that you KNOW is impossible to determine, especially when it involves marrying into a family. And don't try to reason when the kids is blatantly being difficult just to be difficult. My coworker is stubborn and hardheaded. Coworker who is Vickie's mother lets Vickie get away with things that she shouldn't. Coworker that just got married will look at other coworker's child and say "Vickie, no. Do it yourself." or "Vickie, no. Your mother said no. She means no. Get over it." (The two women have known each other for YEARS.)

(no subject)

Mini Hunting Season Ellyut Sadler