I'm not really that mean

At the risk of pissing off my sister Jen, who does not believe in recycling, I'm reposting from this same day last year, Feb 8.  Which incidentally is my niece Jillian's 10th birthday.  Woohoo Jilli!  I have to do the old repost thing because I have a lot of running around to do today and I probably won't get a chance to write a coherent and or mildly amusing post.  So if you were a reader last year, go ahead and skip.  If not, feel free to read on.


You know, after I posted yesterday, it occurred to me that all of you three people that read my blog might think that I am a big fat mean wife.  Except emptynester, totally gets me. 

Anyway, you might think I am mean because I said that I left Alex at the party we were at and made him wog behind me in the car for a little while.

Well, I suppose I should clarify.  Because number one it was only about a block and B, because this is what we do.

See, I am ready to go when I am ready to go.  And I am also ready to go when Alex is ready to go.  When Alex is ready, he'll say something like, "OK, let's get out of here."  So I will go get my coat on, say my goodbyes, and if the kids are with us, I will round them up.

Then comes the part where we wait at the door for Alex to wrap it up.  And we wait.

And then we wait some more.

So then I usually threaten and say cheerfully, "OK Hon, I'm heading out to the car now!"  And then he keeps talking and standing.  And talking.

So then I threaten cheerfully, "If you don't make it out there by the time I buckle everyone in, you can just jog home!"

And then I go out to the car and buckle the kids in and beep once or twice for good measure.  Then I'll s l o w l y start to back out of the driveway.  I mean, I think that I am very very calm, cool and collected about his difficulties in leaving any place that we go.  I give a lot of fair warnings.  And mostly, since I am so used to his annoying behavior, I am pretty cheerful about it.   So usually when I am about halfway down the driveway, he comes running out the door and down the steps and tries to catch up to me.  And sometimes if he catches up, I pretend I don't see him and keep going, just for the fun of it. 

And sometimes the kids will hang out the window and cheer him on.

So really, I don't think I have ever gotten so far as to actually fully leave him somewhere.

So I am not really that mean.  Right?