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Our First Minor Dispute At White Gables
I had a small confrontation with Natasha. Over 2 issues, both involving the chickens.
Firstly, she let the older chickens out of their pen but didn't watch them (for coyotes, to make sure they don't get into the mulch or destroy flowers or my herb garden) so they started doing some destruction. I had mentioned to her that we made sure we were outside working or hanging out to watch them when we let them out, so I was irritated about that, as was Gerick.
Secondly, she lets her 2 year old nephew, “Adonis” we'll call him because that kid is inhumanly pretty, go wild and chase the chickens all over the yard. It gets them riled up and its harder for me to keep working on taming them down and enjoying them as pets as much as egg producers. Adonis means well, but he's a toddler and a boy, and toddler boys are typically a bit rough with animals. When her sister and nephews are visiting, I feel like I have to stay outside and keep an eye out as Adonis gets into everything and his parents never seem to tell him 'no' and Natasha is pretty chill on parenting herself. Which works with her daughter because she communicates with her toddler constantly, who rarely needs much discipline– the same approach doesn't work with with little Adonis.
It was irksome, because of course Gerick wanted to be all passive-aggressive about it and let the chickens wreak havoc so he could cry victim later– and that kind of bullshit pisses me off. So I just went over to the end of the building and told Natasha I was having a couple of problems with stuff that happened earlier in the day.
She was embarrassed and apologetic, luckily, although she did try to defend herself by pointing a couple of things out to me. I went with it and said that we never emphasized watching the chickens, so that wasn't clearly communicated. Also, I love children having fun with nature and farm life, too– its just that I don't see animals as toys. Especially for toddlers! I adore those kids so its nothing personal, I just want to see more supervision over them until they're old enough to respect limits and such.
That was a couple of days ago, and it seems we're back to chatting in a friendly fashion. She and Kalden also spoke to Gerick at one point, and he clarified and backed up what I said, agreeing with me, but in a very respectful and non-passive-aggressive way. Yayness abounds. I sensed no tension, and we were all laughing and enjoying each other again.
Its always a little precarious to start when you have your first disputes, because you never know how people will take realizing you don't like how they do or don't do something. I spoke to Natasha extensively last year, though, and we agreed to be direct and bring up any issues as soon as they occur rather than hesitate and wallow in bad feelings until things become tense and stay that way.
Though she readily agreed to my way once things were pointed out to her, I still consider it a dispute because it was clear Natasha didn't see any problem with unsupervised chickens OR children. Which vexes me, naturally, but people go at things differently. She agreed to be much more careful in the future, and I'll back off and stop hovering around outside when she has her nephew over.
In happier news, Kalden and Natasha painted their daughter's room, a “night” section dark blue with stars on the ceiling and a “day” section with yellow walls and sky blue ceiling. Gerick contributed by buying the girls a “moon light” for the back sleeping area next to the stars! The whole thing was pretty much my idea– making day and night sections based on their room being divided into sleeping and play areas (because the closet is so huge they can put 2 child beds into it.)
I'll have to post pics at some point because we're having way too much fun helping with the kids' room!
Source: http://lucretiasheart.livejournal.com/1036230.html
