Sleep, and the Terror

Innit she cute?

There are a lot of rules that the Terror's mom has given me for when I watch her spawn, a lot of rules that has given me the great misfortune of yelling "NO" at a small child all day long. Now, the Terror can be quite the little... terror, but she actually can be a sweet kid at times. I know, I know, I complain a lot about her, and she drives me nuts, but believe it or not I actually do like the little brat. She can be positively adorable at times, which is why I normally spend my days feeling like the worst person ever because I have to tell her "no" so much; and all because of a few rules her mom has that have basically limited the kid to the couch. I'm just lucky she actually likes cartoons.

One rule is that under no circumstances is she allowed to make a mess or get herself dirty. This sucks for both me and the kit because she happens to be a little artist at heart and I'm an artist myself, which is actually why she liked me in the first place and I got saddled with this job. So every time she wants to draw or paint or pull out her art supplies, I have been charged by her mom to put an end to it; and no, I'm not misinterpreting a rule. The first week me and the Terror incurred the wraith of her mom when she came home to find us drawing with crayons, and since then it's been banned because the Terror "won't pick them up later."

So it's not hard to imagine why it is the Terror also isn't allowed to play with her toys. According to her mom it's too much hard work yelling at her to pick them up, so she's not allowed to play with them in the first place. As you can imagine I spend an awful lot of time feeling sorry for the little Terror, that is, until she decides to be annoying or throw a tantrum and then I'm just kinda pissed off and upset. And why wouldn't I be? She asks relentless questions over and over again about the same thing, is always making demands for things like candy, which she's not allowed, snack food, which she's not allowed, soda, which she's not allowed, more food, when she just got done eating and didn't even finish, or for me to hand her blankets that are right next to her, or get her more drink when she still has a full cup...

It's pretty easy to see that she's just attention starved and cooped up,  but thanks to her dad she's not even allowed to go on walks anymore like we did the first couple of weeks. Mostly because we can't leave the dog and we can't take the dog with us because , well...

Colt is too big to take on walks and is prone to breaking out and running away, and Noodles has no collar, so the Terror just ends up dragging him all over creation and just about choking him to death, and that's when she's not taking off on sprints for no reason. So the obvious solution would be to just let her play in the yard. After all, Noodles doesn't run off and he goes out all the time for bathroom breaks, so...

... Yeah, she'll dash off into the road...


Still, there is one rule her mom has given me that I routinely break, one rule so ridiculous and without thought that I can't help but ignore it, and that is the rule that I must wake the Terror at 8'o clock. You see, not only does the Terror throw a horrible tantrum the likes of which have never been seen before when someone tries to wake her up, but as it is, when I allow her to sleep until she wakes up (normally around 11), she can barely stay awake until 9'o clock. The Terror is still a little kid, she can't stay up that late, she shouldn't be woken up that early, she needs her sleep.

... and she's so cute...

So I break the rules and let her sleep. It gives me a couple hours to eat breakfast, feed the dogs, and wake myself up full before I have to deal with her, too. It's better in the long run because she can stay up until her mom gets home and I don't have to give her another reason to dislike me.