THAT Kid

K has become That Kid.  You know the one.  That neighborhood kid who somehow wrangles him/herself into parties that they weren't invited to.  That Kid who will come to your house and beat around the bush asking for food.  Yup.  K has officially become That Kid.

K has always had a way of getting what she wants.  Regardless of what it is.  My father taught her at a young age to negotiate.  Thanks, Dad.  She's so into negotiating what she wants that she will sometimes talk herself out of something good.  For example, K wanted some spending money.  She was smart enough not to ask me (I'm so broke it's not even funny) so she decided to ask my Dad if there was anything she could do in his yard for some money.  He decided she could do some weeding and he'd pay her $3.  She said she'd do it for $5.  My Dad said $2.  K said $10 and my Dad said never mind.  Most of the time she's smart enough to negotiate what she wants but occasionally she'll negotiate herself out of something.  K's negotiating can, and does, get under my skin more often than not.  When I tell her she has to do the dishes/take out the trash/pick up dog poop, whatever it is, she thinks it's up for negotiation.  "I'll do it if I can..."  It's gotten to the point where I have to tell her "It's not up for negotiation"

However, she called me this morning and asked if she could go with Gabriella to Chris's birthday party at Monkey Land (It's some sort of Chuck E. Cheese type place).  I ended up telling her yes, but before I gave her the answer I had to ask her how she came about getting invited to this party.  I sure never saw an invitation, nor did K ever tell me about it until she called me.  Before I told her she could go I was sure that Gabriella had been invited and either 1 - K had asked if she could go with or 2 - Gabriella said "you can come, too" or something like that.  K insisted that Chris and his mother invited her.  It still sounds fishy.  Why would a kid be verbally invited to a party like that at the last minute.  Hence my belief that K has become That Kid.

It could all be very innocent.  K could have been playing in the neighborhood and the mother didn't want her to be left out, or the kid could have begged his mother to let K go also, but I know my daughter.  I'd bet dollars to donuts that she somehow invited herself. 

Jessie and I were talking about this just last night.  We were at Justin and Jessie's house yesterday afternoon to go swimming and have dinner with them.  After dinner their girls and K went downstairs to play.  After a while one of their girls came up and asked Jessie if they could have dessert.  Jessie said she didn't think so, not tonight.  Madie went right over to K and whispered in K's ear.  Then they all went downstairs again.  Jessie and I just looked at each other and laughed a little.  About 30 minutes later Jessie and I were inspecting the cleaning job the kids had done in the basement, and again Madie asked Jessie if they could have something for dessert.  Again Jessie said, "Not tonight".  Again Madie went over to K and whispered to her.  At this point I'm getting kind of upset with K because that's just rude.  About 30 minutes after that Madie asks Jessie if they can have a cookie.  This time I interjected and told Madie that she should talk to her mom after we leave.  I told her we were going to be leaving shortly and they (the kids) needed to finish cleaning. 

Jessie knew why I did what I did and told me about a time K was at their house during an afternoon.  Jessie had gone downstairs to fix her iPod.  K came down a little later talking about some new snack that is in the grocery store.  Jessie told me that she'd just gone to the grocery store that morning and this snack K was talking about was in their snack cupboard.  Jessie said she called K out on it by asking her "Were you looking above my microwave?  I have that snack for Andrew."  K, of course, tried to play off being innocent, but she sucks at that.  You can tell by her body language that she's faking.

I know all kids do this, but I've always thought that she'd outgrow it.  You know, once she realized it's rude. Apparently K hasn't realized it, no matter how many times I talk to her about the different ways people are rude, she still manages to be That Kid.