I’ve talked before on here about being a referee for the many and varied arguments between my children, but to be honest, sometimes I just don’t have it in me to sort through their Battle of the Moment and pick sides. One particularly exhausting day I stumbled upon a surprisingly effective technique for excusing myself from referee duty: I rendered myself incompetent. The scene played out something like this:
T: “Mom, A took my truck and she won’t give it back.”
Me: “A, give T his truck back.”
A: “But he TOLD me I could have it!!”
Me: “T, you told A she could have it.”
T: “I did not!”
Me: “A, he did not.”
A: “He did TOO!”
Me: “You did too, T.”
T: “No I didn’t, I just let her paint it!”
Me: “He was just letting you paint it, A.”
A: “No, he said I could KEEP it!”
Me: “You said she could keep it.”
Finally they both glare at me as they realize I am completely useless.
Ah, it’s a beautiful thing. I simply wanted them to realize that there was pretty much no way for me to tell who was being truthful and who was right, so I just kept the argument going. They finally walked away and worked it out on their own. :-)
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