"You guys are SOOOOO immature!"
Josh has said this to Tarun and me twice in his young life. On both occasions, the proclamation came after he inadvertently became a referee in epic parental arguments. Watching his parents turn into an alley cat and a stray dog caused him to unleash fury on us.
Nothing calms us more than this summary appraisal from Josh!
Needless to say, the temperature goes down in a matter of minutes, sometimes hours, but why it goes through the roof in the first place deserves a look.
Well, common wisdom says that spouses argue most often about money and raising kids. For us it's never been that. Our disagreements center on food. Yes, I know...dumb!
We are humbled by the sheer embarrassment of fighting about what we eat.
Navigating starkly different food habits is not easy though. Imagine a vegetarian being hitched to someone who constantly wants to eat meat. Or a sweet-tooth being married to a diabetic. Or a person who doesn't do well with alcohol cohabiting with a one who likes to drink a bit too much or...
...a hunter (Tarun) being married to a farmer (me). This stuff is real.
Hunters eat an antelope and then skip several meals waiting for the food to metabolize. Farmers graze throughout the day. Antelope eaters can't be made to graze and grazers can't be forced to down a beast. Period.
In hindsight, our wedding invitation should have said "hunter weds farmer" and that would have given us a leg up in understanding each other.
I graze and so eating out is not a major issue unless I am at a table full of meat and then I am unhappy. When the hunter is dragged into back-to-back feasts or left to graze, friction happens. Add to this mix children whose metabolism work like jet engines and you have the perfect storm of trouble with excess calories.
Then come the disagreements followed by the verdict on immaturity.
We laugh about our arguments when they are over but in the throes of it, our resident hunter and farmer do not like to back down. Hell. No.
Thank goodness our kids are more mature than us :)
(Image pieced from multiple sources and rights belong to the respective owners.)