Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Boss

We watch The Middle every Wednesday night and Alyssa laughs through most of it. Last night, it was about who is in charge and who gets ignored and it made me think.

I know, an ABC sitcom made me think. What is happening in this world?

But the gist was that Frankie (the mom) and Mike (the dad) were discussing who was really in charge of the family. The kids tended to look to Mike for direction. Frankie gave orders, the kids looked at their dad, he nodded and they followed their mom’s orders.

Frankie was annoyed that the kids and Mike seemed to think he was the boss. Mike pointed out that it was her own fault because she’d pulled the “Dad Card” one time too many.

Tom and I decided not to even bother discussing how this is in our house.

Because…well, in some things, I’m the boss. In others, he is.

When it comes to homework, Alyssa looks to me for help. When she needs one of her horses fixed because it broke a leg and she can’t bring herself to shoot it (throw it in the garbage), she looks to Tom and his superglue.

I’m the boss of bedtime and bath. He likes to think he’s the boss of dinner and MILK. Ick. He can have the milk issue. I’m over it.

But last night it occurred to me that I do sometimes play the “Dad Card” myself. I blame him for things I don’t want to fight about.

Alyssa wants a cat/dog/horse? Sorry, Sweetie, Daddy doesn’t like animals in the house or barn or heck, even the yard. If he could figure out how to get the birds out of the trees, he’d probably do it.

Olivia wants frosting for dinner? Okay, that is something I’d put a stop to without calling Tom into the discussion. There are some things that are just a given. Frosting for dinner is an obvious no-no. At least for four-year-olds. When you’re forty? You’ve probably earned the right to have frosting for dinner at least once a month. But don’t tell the kids.

The real problem with playing the Who’s the Boss game is when Alyssa thinks that because she’s older, she gets to be the boss of Olivia. Olivia strenuously disagrees with this logic and there ensues quite a battle of wills. While Alyssa’s way stronger, physically, than Olivia, Olivia has a will of iron. She can outlast anyone is the prize is worth her time.

I’m constantly reminding Alyssa that she’s not the boss of her sister. You know how mature that sounds? Yeah, not so much with the maturity.

But this is how it goes. The older sibling always thinks they should be the boss and the younger sibling sets up to prove her big sister wrong each and every time.

And the older spouse thinks, because he’s old, he gets to be the boss of the younger spouse and the younger spouse sets out to prove him wrong each and every time.

Maturity abounds in our house.

1 comment:

Tiffany said...

We LOVE The Middle!! Matt and I were cracking up over The Boss. He's totally the boss.