Don't you just love family dynamics? What is it about families anyhow? Many times we treat family members much worse than we do complete strangers. Why is that? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Why do we argue and tick each other off? Is it because we know we can and get away with it? Well sometimes that's not the case but we do seem to take more abuse from family members than we do anyone else.
I guess I'm in big doggie do doo with my eldest right now. Well maybe dog doo but not BIG dog do. He's very sensitive about certain things. I know that but sometimes I forget or dismiss something as not that bad and catch it later with him. He usually lets me know pretty quickly. As it usually is with my first two, they can dish it out, but don't always appreciate it when they get the tables turned on them.
Here's the scoop.
My son, freshly set free from a four year relationship has found new "friends" via a big church filled with twenty somethings. In the mix he's picked up a few friends that are girls. But I've got the feeling one in particular has turned his head. Not sure, but it seems to be so. Anyhow after a couple of weeks of teasing me about this girl he finally sent me a picture of him and her. They were just sitting on a bench and it was a cute closeup. She's very pretty with big expressive eyes, long dark hair and dark eyes. So far they are just friends and I believe that to be true. But he does seem interested and after seeing this pic I can see why.
Well it was such a good picture of him and since I haven't had a good picture lately of him, I sent it around to maybe six or seven of our dear friends and/or family. These people are the ones that are usually asking about how he's doing. I only sent a line that said Bobby and his new friend. No harm in this right? He never said I couldn't pass it along.
Well my middle son, the joker with a "sharp" sense of humor decided to paint a mustache on her and sent it out to the same people in my address box. He included a line to look closer cuz he saw facial hair. Well I wasn't happy. I told him that wasn't nice and I really didn't appreciate him using my address book to send this back out. To send it to me was one thing but to violate my address box was another. He said I needed to go to Walmart and buy some humor. Well I guess I better stand in line.
I thought that would be the end of it. I gave him my two cents worth and moved on. Well that wasn't the case. I got an IM from my eldest not happy in the least. Oh great, I thought. Brian sent him the revised and updated pic. Now I was angry again. This was my middle son just being a trouble maker especially knowing his elder brother is very sensitive and much more serious than he is, (for the most part). So now my eldest is angry with me for sending the pic out in the first place. Not at his brother for messing with it, but me for sending it out even tho I only sent it to a few friends. I guess his brother is expected to act like this but it was unacceptable for his mother to show pictures of her son? Really? Since when? Don't tell him but I've had a habit of this for years.
I told him that I didn't know when he sent me the pic that I wasn't able to do what I wanted with it. I didn't know it was a secret photo. My guess is he's afraid of messing up with this girl with her picture falling into the wrong hands....which I guess it did when I sent it to Brian. I should have known better. But there's really no way for her to see this. I don't even know her name and neither does anybody else. This just went over personal email not over the net or anything. I'm sure the rest of the family and friends "normal" reaction would be....."nice pic" and leave it at that. Could Brian do that.....noooooooo he's got too much of a sense of humor to just let that one slide.
I should have known when I got a huge picture, by mistake a few days ago, sent to me by Brian. It was a pic of him and his two LT buddies at work. He meant to send me a baby picture of Ethan. Anyhow this pic showed these three Lts. at a chalkboard with a picture of a lightbulb with the words...."How to change a lightbulb" on the chalkboard. At the bottom of this 11x14 picture were the words in big letters: SUCCESS: Lieutenants This Good Looking Must Be Successful.
So now my eldest is swearing I'm not getting any more pics of him in case I show them around I guess. Geeeesh, throw me in the slammer and throw away the key. It's not like he was in his boxers or anything. I thought we had already gone thru the sensitive teen years. I guess not.
So the question is who's in the wrong here? Mom for sending out a pic of her son with a new friend. Middle son for sending out the same picture but with a revision (a bad one at that) or the eldest with the "tude" about his mom sending out the pic?