Crabby

You may recall that my grandpa sent me a letter after Christmas in which he passive-agressively informed me that I was a tremendous let down as a human and a grandchild. I didn't take the bait and get into a pissing match, but rather made it known that I was going to go my own way and spend my time with people who liked me. I hadn't heard from him until yesterday, when a letter from him to my daughter came in the mail. She is four, so I read it (which he knew I would, of course). The letter read: "We would like to pick you up for lunch. We miss you and your baby brother and love you both. Hope to see you at lunch with Grandma and uncles. Please call us."  Again, this was written to a four year-old. But it wasn't was it? It is another passive-agressive attempt to make me feel bad, to give in. What a horrible person I must be, to be withholding my daughter from her great-grandparents! I suppose one could see it that way. Certainly the author of the letter does. There is another possibility though. What if I am acting responsibly, bravely even, and displaying the courage of my convictions-modeling for my daughter that it is not okay to let someone abuse you, I don't give a shit who it is. Anyway, if I seem crabby today, my birthday (it was no accident that the letter, which blatantly excluded any mention of me, came on the Eve of my birthday), there you go.  I think I'm too smart and too emotionally healthy to fall for such passive-aggressive, manipulative hijinks as that letter. But sometimes I do get sick of pretending I'm fine, I'm happy, I'm unfazed. Bullshit of this sort pisses me off. Wouldn't it be nice if miserable wretches would just crawl into a hole and let the rest of us live our fucking lives in peace?