Our kids think it’s cute and laugh at us.  I think it’s annoying.  My husband doesn’t think there’s a problem but I’m here to tell you – we’ve turned into snippy old people.

When did we turn into Clint Eastwood in Grand Torino?  It’s a sneaky thing I tell you.  We have always been happy go lucky, fly by the seat of your pants kinds of people.  We can be laughing at something one minute and then making a comment about some young whipper snapper who just zipped past us on the wrong side of the road.  We spend an inordinate amount of time in front of screens and yet we talk about the good old days where people actually talked to each other.  I drive through neighborhoods on weekends where there is not a child to be seen and comment on how much better it was when I was a kid.

But the part that is really annoying is that the two of us can be having a nice conversation and one of us will say something that sets the other one off and all of a sudden we’re “snippy”.  Not argumentative, just “snippy”.  “I think we need to get rid of some of our stuff”.  “Well, what kind of stuff?”.  “Like some of the things in the kitchen we don’t use”.  Well, can you name something specifically?”.  “Why are you grilling me about this?”  “I’m not grilling, I’m just asking”.  “Like the bread maker”.  “But I use the bread maker”.  “Yeah, like once a year”.  This goes on until one of us stops talking or walks away mumbling under their breath.  Two minutes later it’s done and we go back to being normal nice people.

Is this where it’s headed?  Will we just get grumpier as we get older?  We will keep complaining about those “young people” giving them the “grumpy old person” look when they don’t meet our standards?  We’re already doing the “huh?” and “what did you say?” more often than I would like which annoys me no end.  How can I feel so young mentally and yet behave like such an old fuddy duddy?

After all, we’re talking about the love of my life, my best friend, my soul mate.  And yet when he decides to start working on something right before we’re supposed to go somewhere, I turn into that crabby old wife, just as snippy as you please.  And on occasion, despite how I know he feels about me, he does the same.  Is this just the result of having known and lived with someone for nearly 40 years?  I watch my in-laws do the same thing after 60 years and yet I know they still flirt and take care of each other.  Maybe the snippy just comes after you’ve known someone for a long time and you’ve come to a place in your life where you know the snippy isn’t going to ruin the relationship you’ve built.

So as I write this and the feeling of snippiness has disappeared, I look at him with his  glasses resting on his nose reading something on his cell and I think about how cute he is and how much I love him.  Even when he’s snippy.