Spring Fever

I visited a friend yesterday for the afternoon. I had my 5 kids and she has 4; they played outside most of the time! You know with 9 kids you would have locked them out, too. Anyway as we visited, we realized that something has turned our kids' minds to mush. They look at us vacantly, use the wrong words, can't remember how to add fractions, and generally are "out of it." In the evening #1 confirmed our diagnosis. He and his brother were shooting baskets in the parking lot, when they started arguing about a basket. I usually leave it up to them to work it out, which usually means tears on someone's part. Last night it was #2 who ended up crying. He ran toward the van to hide in there, but #1 chased him down and wouldn't let #2 close the door. I let it go for a while, but then called #1 to me. "Can you not see that your brother wants to be left alone?" "No." "You are telling me that you are so stupid that you can't tell when someone leaves your presence, in tears, and tries to go where you are not, that you can't tell he wants to be left alone?" "No." I had the garden hose in my hand and was very tempted, but I managed to control myself. This questioning went on for a while and then I asked why he was trying to get to his brother. "I was trying to apologize." "In what way? Your voice and your words were not saying, 'I'm sorry.'" His response? "I was trying to point out to him..." I cut him off there; "An apology doesn't start out with 'I was trying to tell you.' It starts with "I'm sorry." and that is the end of it." "Oh." I'm ready for a vacation.