The weekends make me want to ingest cyanide and die.
We are invited to an "astronaut birthday party." We like the parents, but they have crammed around ninety families into their small house; the chaos is overwhelming.
My daughter asks for several slices of cheese; she immediately tips her plate, so that the cheese lands on the floor. This is so fucking irritating. If I were alone, I might say, "Go ahead and have the cheese. The germs will help you to build up immunity." But, here, in public, I have to perform a certain kind of "motherly concern" dance. If I were better at my job, I would require my daughter to sit on my lap as she eats the cheese; we would be at a proper table. Forget that. My daughter demands crackers, and *after* I have contaminated six with my own paws, she announces that the crackers I have selected are squares, which are unacceptable. She wants the circles. Is it OK to admit that this very briefly fills me with near-homicidal rage? I want to point out that shape does not alter flavor. But a Socratic dialogue would require so much more effort than immediate acquiescence. I try to dissociate.
One closet-sized room has been rechristened "the space station." There are silvery balloons, along with a small "lunar rover." You can also pose in front of a 2-D image of a space alien. Here, children assault one another, and one child manages to shit in such a way that the shit explodes from his diaper and runs down his leg, so that he takes a clump and rubs it on my own son. (I *believe* that this is what happened.) The relevant Poop Mom is understandably addled, but I'm just so pleased not to be guilty, I don't even mind the Poop Mom's rude tone. Not having authored the "poop moment" is, by far, the highlight of my Sunday.
It's possible to say "no." No, no, no, no, no. Let me commit this to print. Let me tattoo this on my heart. Let me remember.
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