Woke up this morning to my dog barking. He is usually extremely lazy in the morning. Peanut Butter is an English Bulldog, my dream dog. That is before I actually owned one. Don't get me wrong, he's adorable, but the maintenance on him is very high. Peanut Butter is relatively mellow, gassy, slobbery, a bit over-protective, and an amazing judge of character. He has a very tumultuous relationship with a 7 year old boy that lives a few doors down. On this fine morning, said boy was riding his scooter up and down our street. This is pretty much a daily occurrence, although, he was getting an extra early start today. The problem is that he torments Peanut Butter. We have built a 6 foot stockade fence around the entire front of our property to cut down on their interaction. He drives Peanut Butter crazy, yelling at him, throwing rocks, and antagonizing him to no end. This boy used to be allowed over when he first moved in. I learned quickly that things in his house were less than stellar. He would tell me stories of how mean his dad was or how his mom was always at the bar. A soft spot grew in my heart for the poor kid. Unfortunately for him, my kids own this heart, so when he had messed with them one too many times, he was banned for life. Things had come to a head after he spit in my daughters face, showed her his privates, called one a moron, called my husband a punk, and was caught red-handed throwing rocks at the dog. These things occurred over a few months. My husband was ready to axe him from the first incident. My bleeding heart, could relate to his hard childhood. I felt bad for him and gave him more chances than I should have. It then occurred to me that I may be teaching my children to put up with more crap than they deserve. It reminded me of when my first daughter was in pre-school, a classmate would punch her all the time. The teachers solution to this was to ask #1 to be extra nice to him. "He really likes you and is trying to be your friend. He just didn't know how to express himself". Are you kidding me? My daughter should accept his limited method of affection? I'm sorry but I believe my daughter deserves the upmost respect and adoration. If anyone, especially a boy, can't show her that, then she needs to get away. I was always one to stay too long and try to heal all the wounded birds. I don't want that for her. Anyway, back to the neighbor boy. He was rude and mean, yet I still kept letting him over. When my dog appeared to be really aggressive with him once, I told him he could not come to our front door anymore. He was never really big on listening, so I decided I needed to tell his parents. Peanut butter had obviously had enough, his agitation had reached its max. I went over at about 3 in the afternoon. His dad answered the door pretty intoxicated. " You hear that boy, don't go in their F'n yard anymore". That situation, of course, bought the boy continued visiting rights, we just had to be outside to invite him. After a few more incidents and my husbands continued nagging, he was officially banned for life. It finally sunk it that I was letting this boy treat our family very poorly. I was showing my kids that when people don't act right, its ok to give them chance after chance. Like I said, I don't want that for them. I believe that people deserve a second chance but a third and fourth is ridiculous. Fool me once shame on you, fool me again, shame on me.
This morning began with that kid riding directly back in forth right in front of our fence. When I let Peanut butter out he forgoes breakfast, forgoes peeing and charges the fence line growling, barking, and foaming at the mouth. He turns into the huge deaf slobbery monster. I can't get his attention to get him back in. I can hear that little terd on the other side of the fence giggling. I scream "I have had it, maybe I should call the cops, Its too early for this crap". I hear the giggling stop and the scooter tires fade away. Peanut butter returned to the porch to eat breakfast. That ladies and gentleman is how today started, all before 7am.
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