I do everything?

Today the Ape went to work and I went over to my parents. He worked, I put the kids down for their nap. He returned to the house, and it was a blaze with activity. It was the usual. Then he got crazy, crazy grouchy. He didn’t want the kids to make noise while he watched television. He also didn’t want the Monkey to watch shows but wouldn’t play with him. He wanted everyone to freeze while he hurried up and finished his show so we could go. Does this seem a bit unrealistic- perhaps. Truly the angst was building, but as soon as kids needed to get in their car seats and wife needed to put shoes on the Apes face seemed to change color but why? We ended up going to the grocery store and his aggravation gained momentum. With what is unclear but, man he turned into a beast. We came home, dropped the groceries in the kitchen and played with the kids in the front yard and garage. There must have been a faint and swift wave of normalcy that came over him to indulge the kids.

For some reason, bugs, our little monkey prefers to play in the front yard, lawn chairs included. The garage door was open and we ended up in there, I was cleaning and he was looking for a charger. This charger is necessary to recharge the monkey’s toy ride-on lawnmower. The child wanted to play on the lawnmower toy and so the Ape thought he’d better get it to work. This would be a fun activity to observe and stay relatively inactive so I was on board.

However, this illustrious charger proved to be missing in action. Of course this mysteriously missing charger must be unattainable because someone touched it. Who could possibly touch something so important as a charger???? Well, by the Apes tone of voice, tightened shoulders and lowered eyes in my direction, he must have assumed that I touched the charger. How could this be? Well it is true that I am the only one to clean and put things away. I am also the only one who never ever has charged, unplugged or knows the difference between the charger and any other plug in the garage. I try to avoid this area of task work, so I leave something for the man to do. But, I didn’t receive any praise.

I know I’m the mom but really I don’t actually know where EVERYTHING has been placed. Are you serious? Obviously, the Ape put the damn charger somewhere and cannot remember where he put it. Why should I be blamed? Together we cleaned the garage about a month ago- a forgotten point on his part. I pointed and he pitched. He knew what he needed, I just knew what I didn’t. All signs led to his fault. He ranted for 20 minutes looking for this damn thing. The monkey had lost all of his desire to play with the toy- he was off trying to make a train out of a scooter and two wire baskets. The child is far more reasonable then his father, at times.

The next day he found a cheap replacement for the afore mentioned charger. He was beaten- by his own memory loss. Did he ever apologize- no. Nor did he remember anymore than the day before. Apparently, one has the right to be an asshole when they lose a necessary component to their child’s happiness, especially when said item can be easily replaced. His grouchiness over took his sensibility- wait that can’t be right – he lacks that. His grouchiness took over the ability to have fun with his kids, in the front yard on lawn chairs. I mean, what is this world coming to when you can’t enjoy a hot afternoon playing white trash while your neighbors look on? I mean really!