amusing afternoon in familyland

It was a dark and stormy afternoon -- 4:30 and already dark, still more than 3 weeks from the winter solstice. But, better than Toronto's winter, I keep reminding myself. So we did a rare thing: We spent 103 shekels for the 3 of us to go to see "The Incredibles" with hundreds of screaming children. Not to mention the requisite popcorn.

It could have been a delightful respite from cold, wet life, but Mr. S. unfortunately entered snitville just prior to our leaving the house, and the afternoon was basically a washout in more ways than one. What got him upset this time was the shouting horseplay with the kid which ended with him deciding she was being "violent" (actually disrespectful, but he likes to put a twist on it) when they ended up play-kicking each other. I didn't see what happened, but it's nothing new, and is always the strange outcome of something else eating him. In this case, that the week has once again ended with me still unemployed and him carrying the financial burden. I knew this, because when I tried to talk to him about the problem with the kid, he would just spit out in non sequitur fashion, "You should be working! Get a job!"

Though the movie was a lot of fun, he was sullen throughout. In this situation, the only thing that works on him is the silent treatment; he can't stand that for long. (My challenge is to teach the kid to keep her mouth shut instead of trying to endlessly defend her fundamentally innocuous actions; her talking just fuels his bad mood.) By the time we were back home for an hour, ignoring him had brought him out of the funk, but the rare "family outing" was wasted. Too bad I didn't just take her and let him stay home and watch his soccer game, which was all he wanted, apparently.