Being nice or being a pain

[broganmc]

Originally Posted by DVCERSINCEDAY1

was your aunt paying for the trip for everyone? it sorta sounds like it. perhaps you should cut the old girl some slack. your perspective as a very young person might be very different from hers. and, i really don't think a public anecdote about her is very nice, particularly if she was the reason you got to go to disneyworld in the first place.

Cut the girl some slack. She was just relating a tale about how grumpiness was rewarded.

OP, my mom taught me God/fate/whatever keeps count. Last thing you want to do is be caught short. I think it was her Irish heritage rubbing off.

I'd like to say I always treat this world pleasantly and with lots of patience, but I'm human. I have my bad days and I do get cranky and miserable at the worst times. Sad thing is when you're miserable like that the person you hurt the most is yourself. Can be a vicious circle if you don't find ways to break it.

My dad has had trouble keeping his good spirits as he ages. Body doesn't work as well as it used to. And when he gets tired and sore, he gets very short tempered and cranky. His family understands. These past holidays were a learning lesson for him. He just didn't have the stamina to prepare for them like in past years. So I recruited lots of help from the grandkids and my siblings to help him. We all did a lot of work and left him able to sit back and supervise. Was hard for him to adjust at first. (Being reminded you are getting older and need help is hard for a guy to take.) But the holidays were such a success that he came out of them professing his love for everyone and vowing to have more patience and goodwill this year. (He doesn't like being short tempered anymore than we do.)

The hardest thing you can do is to have that sweet-tempered good will even when you feel stressed/hurting/lonely/miserable. I always try to remember that when I encounter a grump. Life must be very hard for them at that moment.

[buffalorun]

We call that the GOM syndrome (Grumpy ole Matron, Grumpy ole Man, Grumpy, oh man." It is a state of mind, not an age. Make up your own three-letter acronym.