My brother and I suffer from some rather volatile tempers, today we were talking about his beat to crap steering wheel (he takes his driving aggression out on it–it’s frayed to shreds, exposing the wires underneath), and we got to talking about the inanimate objects we have both destroyed in our not so illustrious temper history.  Here’s a list neither of us are proud of: 

The History of Objects destroyed by Lowe Family Anger Management 

My brother: 

-His steering wheel

-His PDA 

-”Numerous” printers (PC Load Letter, WTF?????-smash, smash) 

-Several keyboards–one smashed so completely he found keys scattered around the house months later.

Me:-A dishwasher door (my brother and I lived together at the time, I got really pissed off and slammed the dishwasher door down, breaking it.  When he came home, he asked how it got broken and I said, “I couldn’t open a bottle of Italian dressing” to which he replied, “Oh, OK”–because of course, it made sense to him.  -A window in my college apartment.  My college apartment had my bedroom window facing the interior courtyard and one night before a big test my neighbors were outside being really loud at 1 a.m. so I threw my textbook at the window, cracking it in half.  -The roof of another apartment. Upstairs neighbors making tons of noise, I got pissed off, looked for something to hit roof with (passed up hammer because thought “no, that will leave a mark”).  Picked up broom and shoved the handle into the ceiling, which predictably, sunk into the drywall about 6 inches leaving a large hole I had to pay to fix. 

Now, it’s only inanimate objects that draw our ire, both of us are well adjusted enough to never direct our physical anger at a person. As I’ve gotten older I have mellowed some.  I never act out that way in front of my daughter because I don’t want her to do it, and I know it’s stupid, but I also know it’s always there–simmering in my DNA.