Meaniac

To an outsider, especially one without a big, loud and proud family, visiting the Lombardi household for Sunday dinner must have been a strange experience. The children were allowed to, almost encouraged to run riot around the place. They would run around their Nonna's home and treat it like their own assualt course. Jumping over and onto couches, rolling and crawling under tables and sneaking up on unsuspecting family members to attack-cuddle and scare them. Really, they were doing anything they could to be little menaces, without actually hurting anyone or damaging anything deliberately.

"They're only young once". "God, they've got a little of energy" and "They'll sleep well tonight" were commonly used phrases. To an outsider, the little meaniacs must have seemed unruly and undisciplined. When really, they were just children who loved and given the freedom to be children. As much as their Nonna would call them meaniacs, she meant it with a deep adoration and love.

The crazy beasts were just kids and whether an outsider was able to accept that or not, despite their opposing view of how a childhood should be, played a huge part on how well they would be accepted into the Lombardi fold.

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Thanks for reading!

Author's Notes: This challenge is perfect because I use quite a few made-up words and have inherited a few from my family. This is an entry for the Neolomicro challenge which you can read more about here:

The credit for "meaniac" should go squarely to my late, great Nonna, though, as it was her that first coined it. As far as I know, anyway.

The above is more or less based on a true story.

Let me know what you think in the comments, please! I appreciate feedback and love engaging with my readers and fellow writers.

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