The screaming horrors (original) (raw)
June 28 2009, 17:24
Yesterday I woke to the sound of heartbroken wailing.
My six-year-old nephew is being a terror to his mother. Like a Hollywood schizophrenic, he oscillates from the sweet enthusiasm of his natural character to sheer inexplicable nastiness. My sister's a saint: I simply don't know how she maintains her temper through the constant outbreaks of recalcitrance, tantrums, aggression, passive-aggression, sulking, destructiveness and outright malignance. The outbreak yesterday was ostensibly because he woke with the sudden realisation that he hadn't had a piece of cake the day before. Later he spent ten minutes hissing, "fucking idiot, fucking idiot" at his mother, then threatened to throw himself out of the car, and all because he couldn't have a chocolate bar. Nice one, kid.
It rather reminds me of what 
akeela had to put up with when I was at the nadir of depression. But in little Jago's case it seems more like outright rebellion against the confines of life with his mother. He looks to me like a kid who needs a good entertaining demolition job to work off some of his inner wildness, but instead he's driving his mother to distraction over the petty excuse of sweets.
I'm so glad he's not my problem. Children—who'd have 'em?