Men and Children

Many of my friends see no dividing line when comparing men and children. I do my best to look at the good things about my darling Babe but there are some days, like today, when I go into the bathroom and see the many ways in which he and my children are a lot alike.

For starters, the bathroom sink. We are so well-off that we are fortunate enough to have 2 sinks in the master bath and the kids' bath. How lucky am I to have 2 children using 2 sinks to spit toothpaste (and leave it) into? A few feet down the hall stands Babe, spitting toothpaste in either sink on a daily basis...much to my dismay. So now I have 4 sinks plastered with toothpaste. Lucky me, I just love being well-off! Why that strikes my family as a Hollywood-style amenity I'll never know, after all, we don't have a housekeeper wiping the sinks to a shine every morning after a spit fest.

Meanwhile you'll find me brushing my teeth in such a way that keeps the sink as clean as possible...maybe that's because I'm the housekeeper? I don't run the water while I brush (nor should you) but what's so hard about finishing up then proceeding to splash some water around so the pastey stuff will run down the drain along with the spit? I now understand my mother's pain...only she had dad's plaster sprinkled with facial hair shavings along with the disarray my sister and I left our sink in.

Then there's the shoes and clothes left downstairs as if their closet is in the family room. There is nothing more irritating to me than seeing Babe's sweater slung over the couch and Jay's backpack in the walkway alongside her jacket and shoes. Those two are two peas in a pod, no doubt about it. No matter how many times I ask them to pick up their junk, then proceed to putting their junk on the stairway in hopes they'll SEE their belongings and TAKE them to their respective rooms, nothing. Am I crazy? Maybe what I'm asking is too much, too foreign or just plain insane? I've been called worse!

Maybe men are a lot like children. But that's just what makes Babe the "fun" parent, the one who calms the situation when I'm so upset with (fill in child's name) that I can't bring myself to deal rationally with him/her, and it's also what makes him perfect for me. He balances me, the Virgo tyrant that I am, and maybe your big ol' baby does the same for you. I sure hope so.