maybe a bit complainy

every week it's such a challenge with the kids. by wed afternoons/thursdays they are more like i dunno, how i think kids should be. when gernot falls down he FLIPS out. i mean, it's unreal. but if he falls on a thursday, he just wipes it off like i keep trying to teach them.

it's like no matter what i do their parents must do the complete opposite.

i understand everyone has their ways with the kids. i probably let kids get away with more but here it's opposite. they talk about gernot needing MORE structure but he gets NONE with them. they are constantly tired in the mornings because they don't do the whole 'let your kid self soothe' and instead (this was evident when i was here for the first five weeks) they get up and let them play or read or whatever.

i wish i could not work the rest of the time i am here....

one good thing is that i don't get yelled at for shit anymore. i have taken a real leisurely approach. we're kind of busy....busier than before school started so that's helpful and makes the days go a bit faster but they still suck at being employers.

so i find out yesterday that i am to stay late tues and thurs but....they didn't tell me this. usually if a parent knows in advance, which they did, they should have said something last week. they just 'expect' me to stay late. i don't mind especially if asked but i have made appointments for my flat and so i said sorry i can't stay late tuesday because if you had told me last week i would have made more appointments some other days.

what bugs me the most is that they are passive aggressive about it. instead of saying 'joachim has a seminar all week, would you mind staying late tues/thur?'
i had to ask first where joachim was then she said 'he has a seminar this week and he's working late every night' and then i say 'oh' and then silence.

then i know that i need to stay late because J comes home on tues/thurs.

so then i say 'so i guess i need to stay late tues/thurs?'
then she said 'oh really can you that would be great'
to which i said 'tuesday i have people coming to my flat.'
so then she said 'oh well i guess i can try getting home by such and such a time'
then yesterday when she got home she said 'oh J will come home at 630' and i said 'i am sorry to have disrupted your entire life for me'
because of course there was the exasperation i have come to know and love in her voice as if the entire world crumbled under her feets!!

jesus this sounds awful.

it's not that i am complaining. guess just getting it out....also as a reminder to myself to stop being passive aggressive, to learn to listen more, to be more flexible....