I just noticed recently that two of my three skids talk EXACTLY like BM. Same tone, inflection, sayings, accent, everything. BM has a pretty distinct Bostonian accent - she grew up there - and the two younger skids sound more and more like her every day.

This...This is not good. The way she talks grates on my nerves, and now I have two little copies of her running around my house every other weekend. Combine that with the fact that these kids can never just chat with me. No, the only time they acknowledge my existence is when they want me to do something for them, buy them something, or take them somewhere.

They've probably always sounded like BM, but it didn't hit me until just recently that they really do sound just like her. It's like BM in a little boy's body, ordering me around every other week.

I have a feeling there's no way to get beyond this. It's like a hair-trigger response to me. When they speak, all I hear is BM talking, and it disgusts me.

I try hard to remember that (1) they're just kids and (2) they can't help the way they talk. They've been raised to expect all adults to bow to their every little whim, and they're not sure how to deal with running into an adult that just won't do that. So I hear the same demands chirped over and over again, in BM's voice. It's AWFUL. :sick: