At this rate, I'll have cartilage for a tongue before I'm 40

My mom was relentless with the dusting and vacuuming on the weekends. Any weekend we didn't have a game or practice in the morning she'd have us up and cleaning by 9 a.m. These were the good weekends. We could suck it up and knock out our portion of the house in a few hours while blaring music or watching ESPN--which usually led to what we called, "Commercial Cleaning" ha. The problem came when somebody was either hung over, exhausted from a competition, stayed up too late playing Halo or Madden, or Mom's irritation at our lack of appreciation of her hard work; we were selfish, lived like pigs--I've always hated that expression; it's nonsense. etc. etc. etc. These weekends were no fucking bueno--excuse my french. If Eric would raise out of bed to the sound of banging pots and pans, and commands for more trash bags echoing through the neighborhood, I'd greet his squinting, sniffling face with, "she's on the war-path." We both knew, right there, that it was going to be a long day--usually meant I'd miss the 1 o'clock game.

This experience does not need to be explained in full, or maybe it should but that isn't what's pounding on my conscience.. Those long days supplied me with the knowledge that's led to be one of the sharpest double-sided-swords I know of. Yeah, it's great to be able to hold back and refrain from unnecessary conflict, but when something happens that really digs into your skin, it daggers the heart of your passion, sometimes you've got to say, Fuck em and just let the devil out in you.

The Art of Biting My Tongue vs. Human Nature to Retaliate

My dad demonstrated, for years, the best way possible to handle this sword. Though his was always in a much different scenario than I've experience--stand up for his 30 year old mug that's been filled more times with cob webs than coffee, or let her throw it away, and mourn the loss internally. haha but this basic principle has caused more flashbacks in time than Marty McFly..Back to the Future for you non-movie-viewers (losers).
I'm always put into a situation where I'm forced to chose between biting my tongue and swallowing the shit, and standing up and addressing the issue (in a mature, non-violent, tone-controlled, respectable way).

I have no problem with this quarrel in itself, I've learned enough through observational experiences to know when to do the one or the other, the problem at hand is: how many times do I bite my tongue before it becomes like clockwork and my opinion and feelings get shut down like clockwork. Thus not only leading to a seasoned, toughened tongue, but also to the source of this debacle never learning the lesson. I don't want 'push-over' to become a personal characteristic, but there is a time when it's better to just take the hit and drive on.

Bottom line: It's almost always more beneficial, in the long run, to just bite down hard, and swallow the suck.

It's ironic... on several levels really... one of the triggers to set off her killing sprees would be when she'd walk down to the landing/doorway to clean the windows, and her stepping on the rug would expose the dirt which was just previously swept under by one of us, just before kickoff.