Maybe my memory is failing me, though I don't think it is

[janradder]

I just can't remember my childhood being filled with howling hysterics and endless tantrums (though it is true that my sister was responsible for quite a bit of that). Is it really just us or does anyone else have at least one if not two, three, four or five dinners a week that involve one or both children devolving into horrible screaming fits of rage and recriminations?

Comments

[sacwentie.livejournal.com]

Mildly related:
I just met a new student, half Norwiegan, half similar to me and H., who looks SO MUCH like Arie! Her eyes especially.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

That's pretty neat -- I'm often mistaken for being Scandahoovian.

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

we don't do "dinner" but if we did that's what we'd have (which is why we don't do it. I have low tolerance. family time. meh. It's a myth)

You know why you don't remember it? Your parents would have beat your ass, that's why.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I don't know if my parents would have beat my ass -- they did beat my sister's, though. As a child she managed to get every adult who had never spanked a child to spank her, like it was some sort of personal challenge thrust upon her.

[jocelina.livejournal.com]

"one or both children devolving into horrible screaming fits of rage and recriminations"

That pretty much describes dinners at my house growing up, except that there were four kids. However, given our differences in age I don't think the drama ever involved more than two or three of us.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Well I'm glad to hear that others had that experience. There are nights, when the boys have been reduced to horrible sobbing/screeching messes, where it gets old and I wonder if it's just us.

[jocelina.livejournal.com]

Definitely not just you guys, though I can see how it would get old. I remember being one of the sobbing/screeching messes at times myself and it was not fun for anyone involved, except maybe the dog, who was able to steal food off the table while we were all distracted.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Our dog just cowers miserably and licks the floor in a corner.

[pierogi-queen.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if they ever devolved into "horrible screaming fits of rage and recriminations", but when I was a kid, your Uncle Joe and I used to fight at the table almost every night. (I usually started it - he chewed with his mouth open, clanked his fork against his plate, etc etc etc). Grandma would get mad and head for the drawer where she kept the dreaded wooden spoon so she could beat me with it. I guess she used to hit Uncle Joe as well since at one point he hid the spoon on her. It got to the point that all she had to do was rattle the drawer and Joe and I would shut up)

I probably headed off a lot of tantrums that you might have had regarding meals when you were going through your hamburger phase by not making you eat at the table. You just wanted to keep playing, so I would make your hamburger and off you would go, burger in hand, just like Wimpy. Nikki, I think would have meal time tantrums no matter what anyone did.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

That is hilarious! A bunch of the fights are about how Arie just wants to go do what he does without sitting at the table, and Jan makes him sit.