On the Stage

I want to hang out with my sister, we are close friends as well as siblings, and we do hang out all the time, but we're in different stages in our lives. She's 27 and single, I'm 23 and married with a kid and sometimes she doesn't want to try and respect that part of my life. She obviously loves Kaia to pieces, but she's always trying to get me to do things that won't work out with me having a child, and this isn't bad, I'm not harping on her, it's just frustrating for me, because every time I say no she gets all pissy and makes it hard for me...but isn't that what siblings are for, I guess?

Let me explain...

I got this e-mail from her:

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What are you guys doing tonight? I might need some mindless Mario Party
after the hectic day I've had here! *argh!* Want to come over to my apt &
play? That way when Chris is done w/his lessons, he can drive to my place &
play w/us? Maybe we can have something fun for dinner.....?

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See...the problem is that we're having a shitty time getting Kaia to sleep. And with rehearsals for the play that we just finished and with the long Thanksgiving, she just wont go to sleep, way too long of a story to try and tell. And well, even if she was going to sleep fine the "Mario Party" she is referring to is on MY gamecube at MY apartment. Now, it's easily trasportable, the fact remains it's at my place. And I have a daughter to get to bed, so I'd have to leave her place 2 hours after I got there, so that's pretty useless. Whereas if she came to my place, besides the 30 minute routine we've developed for Kaia before bed time, and the constant getting out of bed by Kaia, there's ample time to have fun at my place since I'm where Kaia needs to be to get to bed...so it only makes sense for her to come to my place.

So...here is my reply:

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Veronica has rehearsal for her play she's in at ISU.

We are also having one hell of a time trying to get Kaia to sleep, so we have a schedule and this week at least we wanted to stick to that and try to get her to realize when it's bedtime, so I don't think I should be going over to your place tonight.

I"m sorry, but this is so stressful with Kaia not going to sleep and we need to have some consistency for at least a week if we can. It only took an hour and a half to get her to sleep last night compared to the 3 hours of screaming and crying the night before, and Chris was there, so you are more than welcome to come over to my place as long as we don't play video games until after 8:30 and let me do the routine with Kaia for bed time and pause every time she gets out of her room, which I know isn't any fun.

I'm sorry, it has nothing to do with you or your apartment, we always have fun when we're over there, but V has rehearsal from 7-whenever and I need to be at my apartment with Kaia.

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I love my sister, and I love hanging out with her, but she asks me to do things that are like I'm single and the worlds is mine...well it's not. Then she gets mad when I can't do them and say no, or say "let's do it at my place" or "I have a kid to think about."

I'm waiting from a response from her, but it won't be pretty, I can already tell. But, sometimes she surprises me and gives me the benefit of the doubt that I DO know what I'm talking about.

**UPDATE** She understood! Here is the reply she sent:

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If we don't start until 8:30, I'll be there way too late, and I've been
trying to get to bed at a decent time, myself, so I'll take a rain check.
Maybe some other night. I know you're gone already for the night, but like
I said before, it's been a hectic day, so I'm just now getting back to
replying.....maybe I'll cc your hotmail, so you don't think I'm pissed, b/c
I'm not. :-)

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