I have come to a momentous conclusion.  Toddlers and the elderly have a lot in common.

When my kids were little I remember two being referred to as the “me” stage of development.  All a two-year old seems to care about is what they want and what they need.  They are completely oblivious to what is good for anyone else especially parents and siblings.   The entire universe revolves around them.

People of lets say 87 to 90, coincidentally the age of my parents, seem to have the same issue. They no longer give a horses patootie how anything affects anyone other than themselves.

My parents have always had dinner at 5:00.  They don’t care what is going on, who has to work till what time or if the sky has fallen.  Dinner is at 5:00.  We’ve had a running fight about this for years.  When they would be at my home for dinner during the week and 5:00 came they would be extremely peeved that I didn’t serve dinner at 5:00.  It didn’t quite compute that my husband worked till 6:00 and so our dinner was later.  In their head it was rediculous that someone would not get home till after 6:00.

On Friday I went down to fix their dinner.  I almost always fix their dinner on Friday. My mother forgot even though I called her earlier in the day to remind her.  When I got there she insisted that she would get something ready.  She had taken a couple of dinners out of the freezer and thawed them on the counter all day.  Argggg, there is no explaining that it clearly says on the box to keep frozen.  I told her that I would help her.  She had her undies in a bunch, because she had forgotten something, and said she didn’t need my help.  She knew that my husband and I were going to my son’s house for dinner so she was stalling. It got to be almost 5 and I said, how about I heat these up for you?  She said, it’s too early.  My dad had an incredulous look on his face as if he was a starving man and someone was torturing him by eating a burger in front of him. I said, Mom it’s almost 5.  She said “WE DON’T ALWAYS EAT AT 5:00, DON’T YOU NEED TO LEAVE”. Yes, in shouty capitals!  Well, I didn’t leave. She insisted on doing it herself.  The plastic containers were shriveled up when she took them out of the microwave.  I guess they didn’t get food poisoning from letting it sit out all day.  I tried. Today is another day.  I’m sure today they will have to eat at 5:00!