Cornered On The Playground

A standing rule at our house is that during the school week, no friends over to play except on Fridays...and Saturdays. This was enacted to "motivate" Jack to get his homework done and mostly to counteract the chaos of school days. That's not to say that he doesn't play with neighborhood friends during the week. I mostly don't want to worry about setting up playdates and worry about driving my kids from here to there and everywhere.

After school, I was cornered on the playground. Two of Jack's friends had come up with a master plan and proceeded to TELL ME what they wanted to do at our house. I already had a long day at that point, long story involving Emma and her third "opps" report. I was in no mood to negotiate with terrorists.

I proceeded to tell one young ruffian that he was not allowed to come to our house until I talked to his parents and that he'd have to wait another day. Tears immediately followed. I've seen tears before. I was not swayed by the tears. A minute later the father walks up. I've met him before and I was pleasant when I said, " Hi, how's it going?"

His reponse; "Well, that depends on how the next minute of conversation goes."

WHAT?!

Once again, I do not negotiate with terrorists. I proceeded to tell him that since we didn't have plans that his child couldn't spring it on me and come over. I had a momentary lapse of sanity and threw him a bone by saying that he could call and set up a future playdate. How bad would it be to be "gone" all weekend and screen my calls?