DebbieDoesLife

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Ain't A Holiday Without A Brawl


Thanksgiving was spent with my family in Oklahoma. My family is great but they can wear you out. The time is never spent just sitting.

We usually participate or organize our own Turkey Trot run, go to movies, go shopping, cook, and play endless games of Mexican Train (dominoes) and card game 31. Then there is the Annual Turkey Bowl football game. The game sometimes includes us girls but usually we poop out early and its just the boys. Big boys and little, old and young.

It was a sunny day with temps about 55. Cool but nice. My sil and I had already walked once around the block and would then stop to watch the game. This time the guys had split Dads aka "The Trashtalkers" against the boys. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I hear yelling and the word"Fight!"

Much to my dismay, it is my own two boys who are going at it. The 16 year old was bleeding copiously from the nose and the 21 year old has got a strangle hold on him. The hubs is telling the older one to get off and the 16 year old is squealing. I begin yelling at the older one to stop. Okay, I am frantically yelling for him to "STOP! GET OFF OF HIM!!"

They separate. The younger one marches passed me pinching his nose, blood streaming down his arms. I yelled something at the older one about reigning in his testosterone. Then I followed the younger one to help stem the flow of blood. If there was an Olympic competition in nosebleeds this child would have already won a gold. When his nose bleeds, it gushes, pumps and pours.

Running into the kitchen, I grabbed paper towels and went back out. He was very upset and I asked what happened. I was told that Child #1 was a jerk. Yes, he can be and he outweighs this one by about 60 lbs. Then I was told that the older one was talkin' smack and blaming missed tackles on this one and he'd had enough.

About this time, the older one comes up and he is quite upset. He takes me off to tell me that he was just holding his brother because he didn't want to get punched. That's when I realized that the younger one had gone off on the older and I had yelled at the wrong kid. I apologized and explained that I didn't realize what had happened and simply reacted to a bigger kid hurting my other smaller, younger one.

You would think that with three boys we would have this happen all the time. But we don't. My boys are pretty far apart in age which has kept most physical fighting to a minimum. But, this middle child of mine has lost his temper before and we have had to literally pull him off of his brothers. Its happened all of twice in his lifetime. He has a slow fuse but once you get him there, then look out.

They both apologized to each other - I was hugged by each and the day went on. The brawl went unmentioned for the rest of the weekend although I did notice that the middle child gained a bit of street cred with his cousins. I believe the younger ones must have been forbidden to speak of the "incident."

Like I said, it ain't a holiday unless there's a good family fight.

6 Comments:

  • I'm really glad I didn't have brothers growing up. My sisters were bad enough.

    I would have liked a little sister though.

    Knot

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/29/2008 6:26 PM  

  • My twin brother and I fought all the time when we were little. Even into our teen years. He has a scar above his right eye that I gave him with a ski pole. :-) My kids didn't fight much. Don't know how I got away with that, seeing that I had 5 and 3 of them are boys. There was a lot of door slamming tho.

    By Blogger Brenda, at 11/29/2008 11:40 PM  

  • ...or...a trip to the ER. That was my husband's family tradition before I married him.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/30/2008 9:56 PM  

  • I never got to have fights with my siblings. I'm 10 and 11 years older than them. So technically, I think fighting would have been considered abuse. *Snort*

    By Blogger Tink, at 12/01/2008 4:05 PM  

  • Sounds like our family Thanksgiving traditions...not a holiday until someone breaks an arm or leg!

    By Blogger PEACE, at 12/01/2008 6:59 PM  

  • Wow, so much excitement! Yeah, I grew up with a docile little sister. We just fought verbally, hahahahaha.

    By Blogger teahouse, at 12/09/2008 10:22 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home