Saturday my stepson went to one of his friend’s houses for the better part of the day. They played, went to McDonald’s and the park. When they came home, I opened the door to be bombarded by two 9 year old boys whizzing past me. As they zoomed in the house his friend yells over his shoulder, “I want to see your house!” Uhm, sure go right ahead. His father was right behind them. He is a single parent. He looked like he was ready to pass out. Too much excitement, I think.

We talked, or tried to talk over the boys, about stuff going on. Apparently, he just started a new job which is really working him hard. He used to have a couple of weekdays off, but now with the new job has the weekends off. This kid has (uhm, had) a pet lizzard and when I enquired about it I was told, “It died because he felt he needed an all meat diet, even though he was informed that the lizard was a omnivore.” Bummer. I liked the lizard and am always considering getting our kid a pet. Another pet. Other than the two big dogs we currently have. Yes, I am crazy like that. I really need another animal to take care of like I need another hole in my head. That kind of killed any thoughts I had on the subject though. It would hurt me to have a pet die of unnatural causes in my house. I treat my animals like they are humans. And yes, I talk to them too.

I had to hunt down the kids when his father was ready to go, but just had to follow the constant screaming to find them. As they were leaving he asked if he could come over tomorrow. Uhm, crap. I used the old excuse, “We will have to talk to his dad and call you.”

A couple of minutes later my husband walks in the door and informs me the kid is coming over tomorrow. Damn. I knew I should have left my plans til Sunday. Instead I did all my running around Saturday so I could lounge around the rest of my two days off. Mid Sunday afternoon I was informed that the kid wasn’t home and therefor couldn’t come over. Bummer.

Lo and behold he was available Monday.

It was about two and a half glorious hours that the boys played really well in his room. A few minor yells. But nothing a little more volume on the tv won’t solve. I got up and made lunch about the time the noise level was hitting way too loud. After lunch, hubby kicked the boys outside to play with the dogs. I pulled them back in after watching our kid kick one of the dogs. From his point of view, he kicked him really lightly. Uhm, yeah we don’t do that in our house. So they went back to playing in the room with the occasional over the top screaming. Every fifteen minutes or so one of us has to herd them back in the room and reiterate the noise level. Later they went to a friend in the neighborhood’s house to play. Ah, sanity. It is a good thing. No guilt about sending to wild boys to someone else’s house to deal with. No guilt at all. lol

I noticed today that my kid in my house is always the issue kid. Does anyone else realize this? When kids come over to play they say please and thank you. They clean their dishes and fix their messes. I hear them reminding my son to be quiet. And when push comes to shove it is my son who gets the talking to. Hello, shouldn’t my kid be the good one? He is the one who knows all the house rules. He is the one who hears them repeated constantly. Little confusion.

But overall, a pretty good play date.