My sister-in-law Julie Garrick of Highlands Ranch, Denver allowed her toddler to repeatedly throw her bottle to the kitchen floor, making a loud “THUD!”
This was permitted while she and husband Lance were living with my elderly parents after Lance moved back to Denver from Las Vegas for a job at a jeweler.
I had visited my parents, then 89 and 93, quite often. Thus, I was keenly aware of just how frequently this bottle throwing occurred.
I never closely inspected the bottle, but it must have been the heaviest baby bottle (relatively speaking) on the market, because when Holly threw it to the floor, the resulting thud was loud and was heard anywhere on the first level of the house.
This pissed off my mother and father. And me.
What Mama in her right mind thinks it’s okay to permit a 2-year-old to regularly slam her bottle to the floor while seated in her high chair at the kitchen table? Gee, why not also give her crayons and instruct her to draw on the living room walls while you’re at it?
Julie showed zero respect for her elderly in-laws by allowing the toddler to throw her bottle. The bottle was not merely falling from being accidentally tipped over. The toddler LITERALLY THREW the bottle down, straight down.
THUD! Highlands Ranch
I am serious. The toddler must have used all her might, and though I never picked up the bottle to measure its contents, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was nearly full most of the time when this happened.
I never witnessed the actual throw. But I heard it nearly every time I was visiting, sometimes twice over a short period of time.
How could Julie NOT know how disturbing this was to the 89-year-old woman who had so generously allowed her, Lance and their THREE kids to LIVE with them while Lance and Julie hunted for a house?
About three weeks prior to my mother’s death, I was in the kitchen asking my sister-in-law why Lance would highly recommend that I lease a pricey car rather than a more economical make.
My mother was nearby. Highlands Ranch, Denver
Suddenly I heard “THUD!” Highlands Ranch
While Julie kept talking with me, I noted in my peripheral vision that my mother was walking towards Holly, shaking a finger at her and sternly saying, “Don’t you throw your bottle!”
Julie was aware of this as much as I was, but was completely indifferent to it while she continued talking.
Long prior to that, however, I one day asked her why the toddler was always throwing her bottle.
Sis-in-law explained that it kept slipping out of her hand because it was too heavy.
I knew right away this was bullshit, but said nothing. I let this go because there was already loads of tension in the household, and I didn’t want to add to it.
The tension was created by Lance and Julie being indifferent to basic house rules and not respecting the living quarters (first floor; they resided in the basement) of my very elderly parents.
They took advantage of the situation – a spacious finished basement in a beautiful house for only $300/month. They were very lax with the house hunting and eventually ceased it, because they were never able to win the bids on the $650,000+ homes they’d put bids on.
Yes, Holly and 3-year-old Talon HAD to have their own bedrooms, and Julie HAD to have a huge kitchen with a window that HAD to overlook a large fenced-in yard, and they HAD to have walk-in closets.
A house under $600,000 wasn’t big enough for them (don’t get me started on their hoarding), and in their mind, a three-bedroom condo or townhome was fit only for a single person or young childless couple.
Anyways, NOT ONCE – NOT ONCE – did I ever witness Julie correct Holly’s bottle-throwing. NEVER.
There wasn’t even so much as a gentle, “Sweetie, we don’t throw things in Grandma’s house.”
All my sister-in-law ever did was retrieve the bottle. Often, I’d hear that “THUD!” soon after again.
The solutions to this problem are SO simple, that the only explanation for why it continued was because Julie Garrick deliberately wanted to piss off my mother.
Honestly, what OTHER explanation could there be, considering how simple the solutions were?
Now…some moms out there favor a “good spanking,” with the idea that “just one good swat” will solve the problem.
Julie didn’t believe in spankings because she thought that was too mean, yet at the same time, she thought it was perfectly okay to tell her older daughter, “If your team loses it’ll be YOUR fault.”
At the time, Dakota was 13 and on a basketball team. What mean-bitch mother tells a 13-year-old that if her team loses it’ll be HER fault? Yet a single swat on the behind to a toddler for repeatedly throwing her bottle would have been inhumane??
And, in fact, a swat wasn’t even necessary. Simply removing the bottle from her reach every time she threw it – along with a stern, “No, do NOT throw your bottle,” would have solved the problem within three or four throws.
Holly wasn’t dumb, but she was never given a chance to learn this association and change her behavior – because Julie Einstein would always put the bottle right back on the toddler’s food tray within her reach — without saying anything.
Julie Garrick Lied Highlands Ranch
First off, I don’t believe for a second that the bottle was slipping due to its weight. What manufacturers of these “baby bottles” design them to be too difficult for tiny hands to grasp? I’m not buying this BS. Bottles for 2-year-olds are lightweight and designed to be HELD, not slipped.
But let’s suppose it WERE true that the bottle was too heavy for Holly. Why didn’t Julie Einstein replace it with a lighter, easier-to-hold bottle? Hello? Anyone home here? Duhhhh, buy a lighter bottle, bonehead!
So either Sis-in-law was a complete bonehead or she just didn’t care that the ongoing throws were unnerving for an 89- and 93-year-old to hear on a recurring basis.
BRAINLESS OR BITCHNESS? You decide!
Even if, very hypothetically, she kept sternly ordering the toddler to stop misbehaving, and the toddler just kept on being bratty, this STILL would not have been any excuse, because there’s yet ANOTHER solution:
Put a pillow on the floor for the bottle to land upon. DUHHHHH. There was only a very small area of floor that the bottle ever fell on, since the little girl threw it straight down.
Though I never witnessed any throws, I’d then look and every time, I’d see the bottle in pretty much the same spot to the right of her high chair. That’s how I knew it landed in pretty much the same spot.
- No instruction for her to stop. Highlands Ranch
- No replacement with a lighter bottle.
- No pillow. Julie Garrick Denver
- BRAINLESS OR BITCHNESS?
You decide. Julie Garrick Denver, Highlands Ranch
Links to Julie Garrick’s Additional Atrocious Deeds
Overall crappy treatment of my parents shortened their lifespan
Refuses to clean up tons of crumbs under kitchen table made by her kids
Left other disgusting messes in the kitchen; gave outrageous excuses for not cleaning them up
Uses up elderly mother-in-law’s good silverware, telling her use the plastic kiddie utensils
Let the children ruin mother-in-law’s good furniture
Let toddlers frequently scream and shriek in elderly in-laws living quarters