Mayhem, and the Grammys with kids

We all manage our own mayhem.

This stay-at-home thing is harder than you might think, for reasons you might not imagine. The first "problem" that springs to mind is utter boredom. There are days that .....jussssst...... draaaag. I'm not a camp-counsellor or an early-childhod education expert. My kids spend their days making demands and getting annoyed when those demands aren't met.

OK, kinda goes with the territory, right?

Then there's the spouse who works. My wife will come home from a tough day slaying the dragon and see that nothing's clean, no food is made, and there's nothing but screaming or yelling going on. Some days, I'm amazed she bothers to walk into the house. Pure mayhem.

But, that's only some days.

Another problem is what you do with your personal time. Clean up the place? Sure. Or get some exercise? Good idea. Perhaps read a book? Or write on your blog? Or pop in a movie? Sometimes in the face of all of those choices you might realize that you've got no choice at all: the house is dirty and you're kinda fat - so you exercise and clean up.

Whatever, right? Part of the deal.

Then, there's your relations and friends. Y'know, the ones who work. The general attitude can be summed up in two phrases: "Oh, I think that's so great!" and/or "Well, so what are you doing with your life."

Both are valid.

I had the distinct displeasure earlier this week of being berated. This was as a result of a poorly-written e-mail that I'd sent in haste, and such fallout was inevitable. The anger and vitriol directed at me were, perhaps, somewhat over the top and out of line and got really personal. But I was essentially called out for being a selfish person. My failings were pointed out, and even my kids were brought into the "discussion."

Well, who likes hearing stuff like that?

I re-read some of my own blogs, and it's not hard to see my tendencies lean towards complaining. This is hard, that's tough, boo-hoo, blah blah. Perhaps this angry person had a point.

I do complain too much. I've not had a difficult life at all. Yes, there's lots of "work" (of the non-monetary type) to do in my little existence but none of it is back-breaking and rarely could I deem it "difficult." I have a house, family, a pretty good dog, and thanks to my folks a decent education. If I've under-achieved in this world, I've only myself to blame. On the whole, I should talk more about how happy things are and how lucky I am that it's this easy.

No, there's no sarcasm intended there, really. I think I just fall into talking about how tough my life is because....well, because that's how everyone talks. It's some type of verbal crutch, I guess. Lame, I know.

We're all pulled in multiple directions at once, and sometimes as a result tempers get short. My preference is to try and keep as many people happy as I can. I'm not always good at that. Because once that kind of mayhem starts, well, who knows where it ends up?

In this case, I guess it all got de-fused with some re-scheduling and some phone calls. But the bad smell lingers.

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Our 11-yr old daughter watched the Grammys with us this week. This was entertaining on a few levels, as a parent of this little chirping 6th grade bird and as fellow music-lovers hearing her little critiques --- her likes and dislikes. I let her fill up her own ipod these days, and her selections are eclectic.

So, without much more of a preamble.....here's some of her observations:

---upon seeing Lady Gaga: "she's soooo weird but I love her song but she's just sooooo weird"

---"I love this song" (insert nearly every song played by a pop artist)

---"he looks dead, I hate this song" referring to Bob Dylan

----"Oh man, he's old, his skin is weird" re: Mick Jagger

---"he's huge" re: Cee-Lo Green

---"you can tell they're celebrities because they don't look anything like the normal people"

---"why does he look so angry? It's like he never smiles.... and all he does is walk around the stage....why doesn't he learn to dance, and smile more" re: Eminem

--"hmmmmm....................no" re: Arcade Fire

--"look, her mouth moves sideways when she talks" re: the lady in Lady Antebellum

The list is all I can remember, and doesn't do her justice. It was funny. She talked just about the entire duration of the broadcast. Sometimes she sounded like the little girl she is, and other times she sounded like the woman she will be in the future. It livened up an otherwise lame self-congratulatory awards show.