Has This Ever Happened to You?
You finally decide to get some of your kids’ errant behavior in check, because who wouldn’t be tired of hearing how everyone and everything is “the worst” while slipping on the latest major magnetic tile construction left out for days and days on end because how dare you stifle their creativity. So, you decide to create a behavior chart (shiny stickers included) to tackle these issues a few at a time so as not to overwhelm yourself and your children, but then your littlest points out that “no hitting” is not on the chart with that glint in his eye that you know means mischief and so you have to add it on at the extra space at the bottom. But now hitting is at the forefront of everyone’s minds and they are all more violent than ever and you realize that this week was not the best week to implement this new strategy because it is the week after your oldest child’s birthday and your younger sister was out of town for his party and invites your family out for ice cream to make up for it which renders your clever “full-sticker chart for ice cream swap” null and void. And now it is bedtime, and your kids are all hopped up on sugar with no hope for any downtime of dim lights and low-volume television with content not created for children, so you decide to watch some previewed and preapproved sketches together. You agree to let them go Turbo Team on the couches, because how else are they expected to expel this excess energy? When their limbs begin to linger a bit longer on the cushions, they start to notice all the motorcycles around them and then everything is all “whoa” and “cool” until they finally pass out and you can carry them to their room with no energy left yourself except for crawling into your own bed before falling unconscious. Has this ever happened to you?
Melissa Nunez lives and creates in the caffeinated spaces between awake and dreaming. She makes her home in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas, where she enjoys exploring and photographing the local wild with her family. She writes an anime column at The Daily Drunk Mag. She is also a prose reader for Moss Puppy, a staff writer for Alebrijes Review, and interviewer at Yellow Arrow Publishing. You can follow her on Twitter: @MelissaKNunez and Instagram: @melissa.king.nunez.