Oh, How Nice for Him

My neighbor Conspiracy Guy's daughters come to my house every day.  They are 6 and 4 and I call them the Foster Children.  They usually show up in the afternoon and stay until I'm ready to feed my children supper.  I am of two minds about this.  On one hand, I like having them around, because Hank loves to play with them and it means less of me sitting on the floor playing Legos.  On the other hand, they do require looking after, and they are not the most charming, lovable children.  I'm sorry but it's the truth, bless their hearts.

Now that their dad is home schooling them, they do not miss a day coming over.  The other afternoon they came in and I said, "Hey girls, what have y'all been up to today?"  The older one said, "Doing school, and waiting for it to be 4 o'clock."

I said, "Why, what happens at 4 o'clock?"

She said, "It's when Daddy says we can come over here. Or sometimes it's 3."

So we're on the official schedule.

Just now, the girls and Hank were playing a loud game in the living room and I said, "Hey, if you want to be that noisy you need to play outside, or, hey, I know!  At the girls' house!"  The older girl said, "We can't because Daddy's on the phone and then he's going to sleep."

How awesome for him. 

Actually, there have been many, many times where they have mentioned their dad being asleep during the day.  Sometimes it's that they need to stay out of the house, but sometimes they're trying to get Hank to go play with them over there while Daddy naps. Uh, no.

So I sort of just want some reciprocity.  In my uncharitable moments (which are many), I think, "Wow, it must be great to have me living so close by."  It must be lovely for him to have a couple of child-free hours every day.  But I wouldn't feel at ease with Hank being in his care for an equivalent amount of time.  Also, it's like these girls are on little rubber bands.  If I send them home and it's not actually dark, they are back in about fifteen minutes.  Or I'll see them just wandering around outside.

It's not that I think anything bad is going on over there, I just don't think there's much of anything at all going on over there.  Conspiracy Guy seems like a sadsack who has never been that into the stay-at-home dad thing.  And why is he so tired during the day?

Odd.  I mean, we are way past the normal limit-setting negotiations that you undertake in normal social life with non-odd people.  It's all complicated by the fact that in other ways, like helping us with our trees, he's a good neighbor.

That is all. I just needed to work through a snitty moment.  Thank you for your attention.