We’ve been having problems with the eye-rolling lately. I’m not sure where our oldest picked up the habit, but it’s been driving us crazy. There’s something about passive aggressive disrespect (eye-rolling, sighing, and all that nonsense) that is absolutely infuriating. If the kid is going to be disrespectful, I’d rather have him step up and be honest about it.

The other day, as I was walking downstairs to get a drink, I overheard I heard my wife speaking sharply to our oldest. ”No! Don’t you roll your eyes! When I say stop, I mean stop.”

I stopped where I was, not wanting to interfere. From where I stood, I couldn’t see either of them, but I could hear them fine.

The big guy laughed. I don’t know what he was thinking. Something funny must have happened. He knows better than to laugh when he’s in trouble.

“No!” My wife repeated, getting louder. “I am being serious and that is disrespectful. That is not okay!”

There was a pause as my oldest did something I didn’t see, and then my wife just about exploded. “NO! Now I’m talking to you and you’re puffing your cheeks out. What is that? What are you doing?”

“I’m trying not to laugh,” he said desperately.

I walked into the kitchen.

My wife looked at me, exasperated. As she turned away from the boy, I could see that she was having troubles not laughing also.

“It can be tough to stop laughing,” I said with a wink to the boy.

“Don’t you start.” she said.

I got my glass of water and left as quickly as I could.