This week I was in Denver for a company kickoff meeting. A couple of days before I left, a snow and ice storm hit Texas, which ended up affecting my travel plans.
I originally had a 6 a.m. flight scheduled, but it was cancelled because of the weather. Fortunately I was able to get on a 6 p.m. flight later that evening. By the time I finally arrived in Denver, the first day of the event was already over. I was cold, tired, and hungry, so I decided to just go straight to bed.
While I was in Denver, AJ called me several times. During those calls she told me about how AE was treating her when I was not home. She said he had been giving her a hard time and acting disrespectfully. From my perspective, that is not really any different from how he often behaves when I am there.
She also told me that he had been keeping her from sleeping and that she had ended up sleeping in the living room. That really goes against how I feel about things in the house. The living room is a common area, not a bedroom. She knows that I do not like anyone sleeping there, but when I am not home she does not enforce that rule. Instead she jokes that when I am gone they do not have to follow the rules.
I told her that if she continues to allow him to sleep in the living room when I am not there, then I am going to remove the limits I have placed on his Xbox and television and unblock YouTube. She did not like hearing that at all.
My thinking was simple. If the rules are going to be ignored when I am not there, then the least I could do is make his bedroom more appealing so he actually wants to sleep there instead of in the living room.
Drifted Notes 