Email From My Brother : fighting kids and other things

Hi Fay,

How's it going? I hope your holiday from the drug trial is going well. I've got to say I don't know if I could hold up as well as you. Today I'm having a really bad day just being a stay-at-home dad. Both kids today were fighting over a plastic waste paper basket. Sam wanted to wear the basket on his head while Eva wanted to put a load of cut pieces of paper in it. She was clutching the balls of paper and screaming that Sam had to put the bin down while I asked her to put the paper in the main bin as it was being scattered all over the house. She of course refused, Sam refused to give the bin back and in the end I confiscated everything and pushed the wadded up balls of waste paper into my ears to block out the stereo crying.

Every morning at the moment is a lesson in hearing the word "no" from the kids. Getting dressed, brushing teeth, brushing hair, putting shoes on it's like every request I'm asking them to come over and let me poke them in the eye with peeled onions. All that I ask is for complete unwavering obedience, is that too much to ask? Juliette's M.O. is to make things "fun" and "distracting" so that brushing your teeth is game where by you're puppies being groomed for the big dog show or something. Can you imagine doing that every day of the week? Can you imagine coming up with some new roleplaying scenario just so the kids put their shoes on? It's Tuesday, you've got to come up with a new game tomorrow, that's exhausting as f*ck. I've decided they've got their soft as sh*te parent with their mum, so I'm going to be the parent that's harder than granite shot through the cold vacuum of space. My commands run like a computer programme; you will do A by the time B happens otherwise expect consequence C. Bam, bam, bam. I'm going to be the dad that when the kids are grown up they'll say "you always knew where you were with dad" and they'll respect that... or they'll cut me out their lives altogether and I'll never see my future grandchildren. At the moment it's a price worth paying just to get them to put their shoes on. Hell, if the Devil is listening I've got a soul I could let go pretty cheap some mornings.

Also I'm firmly not a believer in smacking. I never have smacked and I never will. It's also against the law to smack to child in New Zealand so there's that too. However I can see the attraction in smacking. On the one hand you've got to sit down and try to reason with a small child who's developing the ability to reason in the first place and although you've put forward a logical argument as to why they must or must not do something the child is exploring their boundaries and can illogically dig their heals in. So then there's giving them a quick smack and "that'll learn you". It's the real life police officer who has to take witness statements, fill out paperwork and follow procedure versus the Hollywood version who just ramps cars, shoots suspects and has a shouting match with his black police captain. Am I alone in being a parent who never would smack a child but thinks "You are being a little sh*t so this would be soooo much easier right here, right now if I just punched you in the knee"? I think it's the same for murder. I wouldn't murder someone I'm totally against murder but f*ck me lady, you had ample time in the checkout queue to get your purse out why are you only know with everything bagged and the pleading gaze of the checkout operator looking in your handbag? Wouldn't it be easier if I just murdered you with this here bag of frozen peas and I can purchase my shopping with some degree of reasonable expediency?

Okay, so changing the subject somewhat because I put some time in on Google and don't want to waste the research. One thing I learnt from The King of Torts by John Grisham (may not have been that book, it could have been something by Michael Crichton ... don't judge me) is that drug companies come up with names and trademark them before they have a drug. So I did some research on Sorenifeb. Did you know that Søren is a Danish and Norwegian given name originating from Latin Severinus, derived from severus which means "severe, strict, serious". So you may be taking a break from strictifeb or seriousifeb or severeifeb? Doesn't everything make sense now?

It's getting late here so I had written a bit about if you're into Harry Potter and dig the Latin link to Severinus think of it as having a break from Severus Snape from kicking you in the verjayjay. I know some people might be really into having Alan Rickman in a black wig and teachers cape kicking them in the crotch but luckily I deleted that from the e-mail because to reference that is frankly just plain weird and unnecessary.

Take care of yourself,
Love Mark xxx