Saturday, August 9, 2014

Passive Aggression

By state law, public schools in Michigan cannot start classes before Labor day.

That makes August a long sstttrrrreeeeettttttttcccccchhhhh.  It is the month when trouble hunts kids down.

Mrs ERJ and I are busting our buns keeping Kubota busy.  Today I took him and one of his buddies to Fort Custer State Park.  They have a lake, a beach, a changing building and a concession stand.  They also have a camp ground and mountain biking trails.

The original plan was to take Kubota and two of this friends.  The friend who missed the ride on the bus has some bad habits.  He says, "Yes, yes, yes." but then fishes for better offers from other friends.  He then works one "bidder" off against the other "bidder".   Sometimes he does not get around to telling the "losing" bidder that he changed his plans.  He avoids conflict, and protects his future bidding potential by simply not answering his cell phone.

He also wheedles stuff from the other kids by doing the boo-hoo, cold-shoulder routine.

The kid we did end up taking to Fort Custer had a family party to attend at 4:00 PM.  I was not about to penalized the kid who showed up on time by letting the passive-aggressive kid jerk all three of us around.

We left ten minutes after the planned departure time.  The second friend was MIA.

I did not miss him.

Kubota and his friend ate bologna sandwiches and potato chips and guzzled Mountain Dew.  They swam and ogled the girls.  I walked some of the mountain bike trail.

A great time was had by all who went.

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