For FUCK'S SAKE!

Remember this post? The weeks since then have been much better. I don't think I've done anything differently except maybe reined in my goofy humor a bit, and she's still mostly ignoring me, but when I say something to her, we get along fine. This is not to say I think she's all that, but there haven't been issues.

Until today. Her son--yeah, the annoying Mean Boy/Showoff that we all had (or were) in grade school classes--was griping about having to sing with the "little kids" (he's 7) that "dumb song" ("This Little Light of Mine") because "church songs are all dumb!" I theoretically agree with him that there is a lot of crap music in churches, so I smiled as he took off and said to his mom, "Heh, you've got your hands full with him in the next few years." Her response: "Well, we like him! We think he's pretty awesome in fact."

What?!?!

WTF? Did I say I didn't like him? Did I imply that I didn't think he is a great kid? No, and I wouldn't because I do think he is a smart kid, and funny, and talented. That all adds up to being a handful.

I've made this exact statement to parents for years. I've heard the same thing from other people about Sparky. It's pretty much a meaningless comment people toss off when a kid does something obnoxious-but-age-appropriate. It's not a freighted comment, meant to be interpreted as a slam on  the parents, the kid, or (for sure) the person saying it.

So the question I've got here is: can I last three more weeks of my term working with her? I don't want to respond with "FINE! If you're going to be a bitch, then I won't volunteer to do anything for you this summer!" since that doesn't help, but I did just move her from Friend to Acquaintance on Facebook, and I know that I will be hard-pressed to get involved with anything she's involved with just because I do not need this hassle. This won't be easy: our church isn't very big, and since I like kids and she has three of them, we're bound to bounce into each other.

The annoying thing is that her husband is great. He and I work together just fine. I've helped him out a couple of times when she had to stay home with a sick kid and he needed someone to mind the other kids just while he participated in worship. He's just a smart, wicked funny, guy. And I can't for the life of me understand why he tolerates her small-minded idiocy.

Oops, maybe she's a mind reader? Actually, though, I don't think I felt that way about her till I noticed her ignoring me and generally being a bitch. Clearly her son's apple didn't fall far from the tree.  /meow