Observations

The last two days the neighbor girl has come over to " play", usually because her mother isn't home and needs a place to hang out. She is only 8, not really ready to be left alone.... I am starting to think that you can tell what a child's home life is like by watching what it is that they act out when they play. I already knew that this child was not being raised the same way I am raising mine, honestly I don't think any two parents do it the same way. It was sad to me however to watch the kids play, yes a total of 6 children, in my backyard. I seriously felt drained by the time she left. She is 3 years older than everyone and the game consisted of her chasing people around with a light saber yelling,

" Get back in your room!"
" Get in bed!"
" I didn't tell you to come out here!"
" Get over there!"
" Stay in there!"

And various other phrases that were along those lines. I don't know how the other kids tolerated her. Ok, so Victor didn't. Victor sat out and watched and finally informed her that she was "being Miss Bossypants" and he was going to find something else to do. Sadly she is larger and louder than everyone else so it was hard for them to ignore her and play another game. I couldn't take it any longer and introduced them to Tug-o-War. It kind of makes my heartache for her if this is what she is dealing with all day and thinks is normal. I would like to think that I don't yell at my kids that much, that they spend their play time just yelling at other people.

I also observed my 16 month old sucking Jello off his tray, loudly.