Rowdy Kids

Rowdy Kids

By Allan Olson

Every parent thinks their kids are the rowdiest, the loudest or rudest – especially in public settings (i.e., church, stores, public functions), even if it is only the parent that notices them.

My children are as normal as the next. They like to have a good time, wrestle, tease and torment each other, along with (on occasion) actually being civil to each other. However, it seems like they are always on their worst behavior in a public setting.

While my children haven’t done anything horrendous (yet) in public, even minor things can make a parent embarrassed, like the child not sitting still, or talking above a whisper when they are supposed to be quiet.

On more than one occasion, I’ve felt mortified when my child acted out in church, only to be informed later that I have such good little children. I think to myself, “They can’t be talking about my kids!”

The rowdiness gets exponentially more intense as the number of children gathered in the same location increases.

Whether it’s on a camping trip with their cousins, or just a get-together at our house or theirs, my children get more wound up with more children around. More than once they will go from being the best of friends to “so-and-so hurt me, I don’t like them anymore,” and back to best friends again in a matter of moments.

The weekend started for me on Friday as the boys and I, along with Grandpa, spent nearly the full day messing around in the woods and making minor repairs to the deer stands. By the time we were done with all that walking I was sure the boys would be too tired to do anything else. Wrong. After a short rest for lunch and a few minutes in front of the tube, I kicked their butts outside again. This time, there was far less walking. We hijacked my brothers’ new toy and started cruising the fields and checking out the remaining stands before calling it quits. The boys enjoyed the bumpy ride across the field and over the trees and, I have to admit, so did I. Even so, they still had plenty of energy later to get rowdy with their cousins.

On Saturday, I joined Minnesota’s army of orange in the annual foray to the woods. Primarily due to the insane wind we were experiencing, the kids did not join me for a hunting walk or a “quiet time” in the deer stand. They spent the majority of the weekend inside, terrorizing one of their grandparents’ homes.

That, of course, led to more rowdiness. The few times I was inside over the course of those two days I settled a fight or two and probably added to the rowdiness of the situation as well. As kids are wont to do, they added a few moments of defiance to stir my fires of crabbiness.

On Sunday evening, all but Abigail fell asleep for the long car ride home. When we got home, she said, “I’m almost out of energy.” Mom and dad were certainly not disappointed to hear that. If we could only find a way to tap into her energy for ourselves, we could get lots of things accomplished in a short time.

As the winds persisted over the weekend, so did my persistence to get a deer. It didn’t matter what stand I took, or how much time I spent in the woods, the result was the same. No deer.

This week, I’m determined that I will get a deer. Now I just have to convince the deer to cooperate with me, or my dear might be tired of my need to head to the woods before the season ends.

Thanks for reading, and remember to watch out for those school buses. As always, feel free to drop us a line and/or a photo with those prized bucks, and have a great week. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com