How old are you and where is your mother???

Sometimes I swear there are THREE children living in my house...but I only remember giving birth to two. The third one is much bigger, a lot hairier, and way older looking than the other two, and yet they sometimes act like they are all the same age...grrrr.
I already have to wear the hats of mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, employee, student, homemaker, chef and sometimes handyman. I simply don't have any more room on my head for a referee's hat, too.
The problem is that my son and...um...that bigger kid are just too much alike. Both are stubborn, demanding, controlling "little" people who sincerely believe that the world revolves around them (or if it doesn't, it should). Try to force them to work together (say on the smaller child's homework) and the result is always complete chaos. This chaos is "black-hole"ish in nature as well. If you are anywhere nearby, you might try to resist, but it is useless...you WILL get sucked in. For a long time I have resorted to just making sure that they never have to work together on anything un-fun. This is accomplished by me just doing EVERYTHING un-fun (homework, showers, bedtimes, etc.). Otherwise I get the unique pleasure of settling their arguments and THEN having to do the un-fun stuff after they are settled down so that they don't start arguing again. Boo.
This week I had enough. With all those other aforementioned hats to wear, I just can't keep up with having the sole responsibility for all the un-fun stuff and I have no further desire to play the referee role. I ripped my husband a new a$$hole...um...I mean, the bigger kid and I had a long heart to heart talk about roles and responsibilities last night.
I am happy to report that post a$$hole ripping, one of the children disappeared and an adult appeared in his place. The adult was actually able to get the child to finish his homework without my intervention last night. AND, tonight my son actually requested his Daddy's help with his assignments. I almost had a coronary...but like, in a good way. Now to see how long this will last...a person can hope, can't they?