Neighborhood kids.... again.

It's an interesting dynamic with so many. There is one little girl whom we do actually like, and think is a good friend for Erin. Her name, ironically, is Emma, just like Erin's friend back in Georgia. She isn't annoying, minds her own business, and has boundaries that are pretty similar to Erin's. This is the type of kid I will let my kid hang out with.

As for Pee Wee on Crack, who is now renamed Urkle because it's shorter and he looks like Urkle, I can't stand him. It's like, every time he comes within 10 feet of me, I want to pick up a rock and lob it at his head because he's just worn out every bit of patience, tolerance, and welcome that ever existed here. See, the thing is that at first, he seemed ok, just a little wild, but what kid (especially boy) that age isn't? I thought maybe because his mom works, and he's pretty much been raised in daycare, that he just didn't have a lot of social skills, or that because his mom was single until last year, he just hadn't had a strong male influence in his life to teach him how to act right and lay down the law when necessary. I figured this was just a classic case of an upbringing on the back burner. Thak blamed religion, stating that "born again" Christian kids, boys in particular, are not generally disciplined very well. Well, whatever it is, I don't care. After today, we are 100% sure it's not innocent or unintentional or anything other than him being a rude little bastard.

Thak and I were just outside and he ended up fixing bikes for a lot of the kids because he was fixing Erin's bike, and kids just brought up their bikes which needed stuff like tires aired up, or chains put back on, or seats adjusted. When he got finished with all that stuff, Orren was enjoying himself playing outside on his Plasmacar, so we ended up staying outside to watch him, and observed more of this neighborhood dynamic. Erin and Emma were playing just fine, riding bikes, scooters, and stuff like that, and just doing their thing. Orren had to be kept in line, but he's 2. That's to be expected. He'd ride his Plasmacar out into the street by accident, and we'd pull him back to the sidewalk, and he'd ride along until the corner (our lot is on the corner, so we're talking about maybe 20 feet from the driveway) and turn around.

Then there was Urkle. In the space of 15 minutes, here is the short list of what this little bastard did:

-Pushed Orren off his Plasmacar and took it from him, three times.
-Wouldn't stay out of Erin's Jeep, which was charging and definitely NOT out for playing.
-Waved a fishing pole in my face.
-Whipped the car with the fishing pole.
-Came back repeatedly even though he was told to leave.
-Pushed me, Erin, and Orren.

I had enough. I told Thak, "Get rid of this kid. I can't stand him." He tried. He told him, "Look, you make Mrs. M very unhappy, you upset our dog every time you come near our house, and you are the only person in the world we can say that about. You are getting on everybody's nerves, and nobody is enjoying the fact that you are here. Go home." He decided instead to take Orren's Plasmacar again.

I had enough then. I told him, "Look, we don't like you. We put the peephole in our door so we could know not to answer when it's you. [true story]. You steal toys from 2-year-olds. You stomp flower beds. Our dog even hates you, and our dog loves everybody. You are not the kind of person we want anything to do with. GO AWAY. You are not welcome here." Of course, it didn't work. By then, Erin was getting flustered by the other kids telling her how to ride her bike (she thought they were being bossy, really they were just cheering her on), so we pulled our kids into the house because we figured Erin needed a break, put everything in the garage, and told everyone to go home. That worked.

Seriously, though, we don't know what to do with Urkle. His stepdad is actually very cool. We know him. He's not allowed to discipline the kid, though. The mom.... holy crap, she's a little scary. She's kind of a snob, and I can tell there's NO WAY her kid isn't perfect. Since she's the one who does all the disciplining (by which I mean absolutely none at all because the kid is always in daycare and when he's not, she's sugaring him up and sending him outside to go inflict himself on people like us) this kid is pretty much just screwed for life.

We also learned something very interesting about the Araboolies White Trash Cousins. Their mom is like younger than me.... and has kids from Erin's age all the way to teenagers, probably 6 or 7 of them. We still haven't gotten an accurate count That explains a lot. We still haven't seen a dad, which means maybe he's deployed. That, too, would explain a lot. Mind you, as my friend Jo Ann from back at Ft. Stewart would say, "There's a difference between explaining something and excusing it." The kids still act like shit for the most part, but we now kind of see why.

I will say something VERY good for our own little girl. Everything we've been doing with her as far as groundings, holding a hard line on discipline, and everything else, is paying off. She just came and asked if she could go play in her friend's backyard. That means that she actually now understands that our rules are for something other than trampling on. (If she's going to be in anyone's yard, she needs to tell us which so that we know where she is. She used to just disappear, and we'd find her in random people's houses, yards, or whatnot. This asking is a major breakthrough.) Of course, we said yes, with the stipulation that when daddy called for her, she had to come running. This is very promising.

School age kids are hard to deal with sometimes, and there are hard times, but being consistent will pay off. You hearing this, Urkle's mom?