Well, you could but probably just the one time. I will say that the kid outside/adult inside thing is pretty awesome.

You can't exactly tell a 4 year-old to head over to Prospect Park for half an hour so Mommy can clean the kitchen.

Hee. It would be cool if you could though.

The disorder is modeled after post-traumatic stress disorder because it too is a response to a trauma that endures. People with PTSD are left fearful and anxious. Embittered people are left seething for revenge.

"They feel the world has treated them unfairly. It's one step more complex than anger. They're angry plus helpless," says Dr. Michael Linden, a German psychiatrist who named the behavior.

This perfectly describes two of the kids on my Little League team.

Well, okay only one is embittered. The other is just a surly jerk. All of it in particular stark contrast to say, Dixon, on my team who made two stellar defensive stops at third base last night and ripped a ground rule double. And is also cheerful, easygoing, happy to celebrate the accomplishments of others and glad when the team does well. Or Emmett, the best player on the team, who always has fun even during an 8 game losing streak and keeps it loose and spends a lot of time bucking up his teammates after bad outings, errors and at-bats.

I'm sympathetic to the embittered kid. He's been in foster homes his whole life. The surly jerk has really nice parents so it's kind of a mystery of character and genetics.

You can't exactly tell a 4 year-old to head over to Prospect Park for half an hour so Mommy can clean the kitchen.

I guess it depends on how much you like the 4 year old.

I guess it depends on how much you like the 4 year old.

And if it's your 4 year-old or someone else's.

Well, you could but probably just the one time.

HAHAHAHAHA!!

The thing I didn't expect about buying a house was how much I love my backyard, which is smaller than some living rooms, but has trees and shade and flowers and patio privacy. If it weren't 49F and dank here today, I'd be out there with the laptop writing this.

Speaking of kids. We got back report cards, Emaryn got all A's. Not unexpected, but quite cool. There will be Krispy Kreme donuts soon (you get free donuts for A's on report cards, then we buy the kids some donuts as well). Leif doesn't get grades until next year. However we got the results of his IQ testing. They put him in the range of 154 - 172 with 95% confidence.

You can't exactly tell a 4 year-old to head over to Prospect Park for half an hour so Mommy can clean the kitchen.

EM grew up in Fort Greene (Brooklyn) in the 60s and was on the loose as early as age four. But every family in that four tower complex she lived in knew her. All the families felt comfortable disciplining each other's kids, and also taking them in. She would literally just knock on a door when she was hungry and that family would invite her to lunch or dinner.

But that was a different era, culture and set of assumptions with a lot more continuity in the neighborhood.

The PTEmbitterednessD strikes me as a useful concept. If it helps a couple people before they commit murder-suicide on an ex-spouse, or shoot up a Post Office, it would be a blessing indeed. Not to mention a bunch of less violent lives that it could make better.