Two of Each, Talk All Night

Two of Each: Our two eldest are developing the ability to take on responsibilities so quickly now. We continue to make charts for things like chores and reading practice. Our son recently completed his chart for reading practice--two weeks worth. That is difficult for a four-year old. We rewarded him with a toy snake, his favorite animal. It came in the mail today. Frequently, a new toy is a point of contention when only one of the kids have it, even if they both get a new toy at the same time. For some reason, they always want what the other has when the other has it. We were lucky tonight that the contention wasn't serious. In fact, they played most of the evening with our son running from our daughter who was trying to grab the tail. When she did, our son would lead her along to the couch and they would both fall on it. At one point, though, it was too much for our snake-less daughter, and she began to cry from our son's teasing. My wife observed that we should have gotten our daughter her prize at the same time. It seems that is the only solution. Everyone gets the same thing at the same time, whether dolls, cars, Happy Meal toys, etc., regardless of whether they are boys or girls. At this age it doesn't seem to matter. I do have to hand it to the kids, they played so well for so long that we let them play a little longer than usual. Despite the occasional fighting and jealousy, we are grateful they have become such close friends.

Talk All Night: Speaking of friends, it seems that our two girls are becoming good friends too. We can tell because they stay up in their rooms talking and laughing after we put them to bed. We are glad that our baby is old enough to play a little with her big sister because they both tend to sleep in more. My wife joked that she would rather they stay up late talking than put a curtain up between them. I wondered though whether our kids' friendships have been forged in adversity, meaning in the face of strict parents. I thought maybe we should be the ones to put a curtain up when they get a little older, because they will likely rebel, move the curtain, talk all night, and become better friends. In fact, with our kids' inherited stubborn personalities I'm pretty sold on the idea of using these forms of reverse psychology to achieve beneficial results. We've even thought of raising our son with constant warnings to stay away from a little girl we like in the hope that he will want to marry her in the future. I'm sure the same will work for our girls. I'm still not sure how to keep them away from the opposite gender until that time. I'll have to think through it a little more.