opposites

yesterday, a mom brought her son in to have an eye exam. she also brought his little brother and sister. the boy, who is about 8 years old, was very against having his eyes dilated; he is not a fan of eye drops. he flipped out and ran outside and threw a tantrum. we had to send chelsea outside to keep an eye on him because he refused to enter the office. the whole time that he was in the exam, before he freaked out, his little unibrowed brother was running around the office spitting on the carpet and yelling the word "ass" and threatening to pull down his pants, while also trying to get his little sister to put his dirty foot in her mouth. he was a total nightmare - a poster child for birth control/abstinence, according to everybody at the office.

so finally, the mom goes outside to bring the boy back in and he fights her every step of the way. he's screaming, crying, and kicking - like full-on violent reaction. the mom and doctor pinned him to the floor and were holding him down while putting the drops in his eyes. at first, it was only this family and office staff, but then somebody walked in and we had to explain what was going on, in case she was about to call child services. after he was done with the screaming, the mom looked up and said, "aren't children a joy?" i'm pretty sure she was trying to make a joke, except we were all thinking, "generally, children are a joy, but not your children...except for the little girl." when they finally left, ana felt a strong need to visit the liquor store across the parking lot. i think everybody had a headache. we all decided that this mom needs to call nanny 911 or supernanny.

this morning, a dad and his daughter stopped by to get his glasses fixed/adjusted. she was the cutest! 4 years old and totally outgoing/social. the dad was telling us that she's half puerto rican and half japanese and speaks a little japanese. he also told us that he's ready with the guns and ammo for when they start to hit their teens. hahaha...he said he plans on planting cactus and dangerous plants with thorns under all of the windows at their house. anyway, the little girl says, "you're pretty" and then, "excuse me, do you want to see what i can do?" it turned out to be a very good somersault. she wants to be a ballerina and president of the united states. i told her that was very ambitious. she also told me her favorite song is from ella. i was like, "ella fitzgerald?" and dad said, "no, ella enchanted." i'm like, "i love that movie." she said that she had the DVD and i was like, "me too!" then came the sudden realization that i have the same movie taste as a pre-schooler.

ok, so two totally opposite modes of behavior/personalities. is it the parents/parenting styles? is it internal or external forces or a combination of the two?