Pillaging Little Brats

Recently my son had a friend over - a *playdate* arranged by the two working moms that I had to oversee.

With about 10 minutes left in it, the visiting boy announced to me that he was hungry. I told him his mother, caretaker, or nanny would be here very soon. I'm not comfortable feeding other kids nor am I comfortable having other parents feed mine unless it's absolutely necessary. There's also the issue of allergies and spoiling dinnertime appetites and whatnot.

Unsatisfied with my response, the 7 year old continued to announce his *need* and demanded food.

Again I told him he was leaving in a minute and whoever comes....they'll get him something to eat.

Undaunted, he proceeded to go into my kitchen and start opening and rooting around in the cabinets.

Are you kidding me? Of course I slammed them shut and all but physically booted his hiney out of the kitchen. In fact I felt like depositing him on the curb.

Not long after that episode, one of my daughter's sweetest 4 year-old friends pulled the exact same stunt. She had an uncanny eye for the precise cabinet that housed the food too. I had to shut the door on her as well.

So what is this? My own kids have NEVER done such a thing. I can't well permit their bedwetting jabronis to have free rein in my house, now can I?

Note that both of these children are *nannied* and caretakers (one of whom is actually VERY GOOD) can't or shouldn't exactly smack these little devils. Of course it could be also that these kids come from homes with more liberal food policies too.

But get what happened this weekend during my daughter's birthday barbecue...

My wife comes across another 4 year old rooting through the cabinets of our kitchen. His father came in close behind him and explained to my wife that his son was *hungry*. Instead of scooping his deprived(?) and bold(!) son up (or politely asking) he proceeded to help the child by opening the cabinets for him. THEN this guy went over to the refrigerator and they starting foraging there! Meanwhile we had a massive spread of food set out already. Believe me, no one has EVER starved at our parties - but many have been invited once only to never be invited again.

Oh yeah, and this 4 year old - and I mean he JUST turned 4 - spent 5 hours at this party playing his Nintendo DS. And we received a frantic email early the next morning from his mother because the little bugger had left his DS at our house and was already *flipping out*. Church was going to tough for them that Sunday morning...