Crisis of conscience
So, if Julia is shoving, yelling at or otherwise acting inappropriately toward her brother, and Evan is giggling gleefully and relishing the attention from his beloved big sister, what's my obligation here? Should I:
A) Break up the scuffle and reprimand Julia for behavior which would horrify me if she directed it at any other child
B) Praise Julia for keeping her little brother entertained
or
C) Pretend not to notice and use the time when no one's bugging me to get stuff done around the house
Does the answer change if I confess that my definition of "get stuff done around the house" typically involves bargain hunting for expensive children's clothing on eBay and writing a blog entry?
2 Comments:
You know my vote! C! C! C! C!
I say as long as no one's being physically injured, let them go to it, especially if it buys you some free time for doing IMPORTANT THINGS. I'm reminded of a pair of brothers in John Irving's novel "A Prayer For Owen Meany" -- the older brother was always beating up the younger one, sometimes to the point of drawing blood, and the younger one was very cheerful and accepting of it all -- "Simon thrived under a hail of Noah's punches." Perhaps you've got a Noah and Simon there.
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