Not losing my mojo of parenting...the referee saga.

When you have a child you become a parent, when you have two you become a referee. And it is so true. In an argument which involves your kids it is always in your best interest to not take sides. As there is no right side in their argument. You can never know who started the fight and everytime you think you have found the culprit, you are so wrong, it directly sends you deep down the rabbit hole.

The fight starts with my two daughters and somehow along the way they manage to get me involved in it. The two of them start the quarrel and by the end of it, there is no conclusion but a third unwanted member to the quarrel. How do kids manage to create problems to which there are no solutions is absolutely beyond me. No,Wait. There is a glitch here. The mother who gives most of her time and energy in solving the mess always ends up wrong. And a villan. And then there is another person whose analytical and problem solving skills suddenly become important. The entry of the hero. Daddy. He has always got the smartest, simplest answers to all their problems. And so he often becomes their saviour.

Now I dont have anything against it. But what about all the hard work mums put in to resolve the conflicts. I do all the hard work and he takes all the credit for solving their fights. Heck, naughty9 even thinks I create more mess than it already was. Like the other day they were having this argument about the eraser. Both of them wanted the same eraser. What started as a regular chaotic quarrel soon turned into a full fledged wrestling match. I thought there was a simple solution, so I gave the old eraser to the elder one and got a new, shiny, yellow coloured eraser from the cupboard and gave it to the little one.

My only fault was I wasn't aware of their rules. In my mind I had very easily solved the problem and was already patting my back until my naughty9 gave me a stern look and told me how I goofed up and created more mess. Really. And here I was thinking I am the best. Atleast naughty4 thought so. After all she got the new one. The solution was to decide who will use the old eraser. And not introduce a new eraser and foolishly decide to give it to either one of them.

So the lesson learnt here is to atleast keep two erasers in the stationery stock at a time. Or if the eraser is huge you can cut it into two equal parts with their permission ofcourse. Or you can toss a coin and check who can use it first.( with their permission ofcourse). The thing is whatever mothers decide can never be satisfying or acceptable to both the kids. They will always think you are favouring the other. So now the ball is in your court. If you have to favour one then always favour the one who is more angry at the time, just to save yourself from all the angst, they most likely can use against you. Cheers!