My poor deprived children. No wonder they had to fight over it! Ha.
I also greatly enjoyed your stories about stupid kid fights that have taken place under your roof. The brothers fighting over who got to wear the garbage can on his head is a classic!
Anyone else got a Kids Fight Over the Most Ridiculous Things story? Send ‘em my way!
I enjoy your blogs greatly, but never ever comment. Today I couldn’t resist.
When my nephew and my son were 4 and 5 years old, they fought over imaginary goggles. Really – tears, wailing and if cooler heads had not prevailed, it would have come to blows. No amount of, ‘Oh look, here is a pair of googles exactly like the other ones’ would do.
We ended up setting the timer to take turns with the IMAGINARY GOOGLES.
My kids had many fights about imaginary cookies. Over who got more cookies, who’s had more sprinkles, chips, frosting you name it. Serious rolling on the floor fights that would’ve ended in physical injury if I hadn’t stepped in. When we stopped playing that game they tryed to start a game in the van where they would “call” cars they liked and it would be theirs. Cars, motorcycles,atvs, whatever. That was short lived after I thought I was going to have to stop the car to break up a fight!
Whenever a toilet paper roll runs out, there is a rush on the bathroom for who can grab the card board roll first! I’ve actually broken down once and unraveled a partial roll from the spare bathroom, just to stop the chaos!
Lissa at The Lilting House writes about the many uses of dryer lint. This came from the fight her daughters were having over said lint. The story of her children fighting over the dryer lint and the other stories reminded
A lot of “discussion” goes on in this house. Today it was over who was the wickest-no, they did not mean “cool”- among them. Umm…kids, we are suppose to be striving for the opposite title!
Older brother making a plucking motion and saying “I’ve got your eyeballs” to younger (not a toddler) brother – who wailed and wailed for him to “give them back” — and tried to take “them” back forcibly.
I’ve never commented before, but I love reading your blog. I was educated at home from first grade through high school graduation, and I’m now a junior in college. When I was very young we lived in a house with a shower but no tub, so when we went on vacation in Florida and the hotel bathroom had a tub it was a huge deal – like having our own private swimming pool. This sometimes went to extremes though. We came back from swimming in the ocean, my Mom stuck her three small children in the tub for a bath, and a massive fight ensued over who got the “deep end” of the tub/imaginary pool (the end by the faucet). This continued to happen for the rest of the vacation, even with a rotation schedule. I’ve always wondered if it might have been simpler just to give three separate baths…
Once my siblings and I got in a fight about “The Little Red Hen” and whether or not she should have shared that loaf of bread with the lazy animals in the end of the story…..we were grown-ups when this fight happened.
This is my first comment. I’m a long time lurker.
My girls once got into a huge fight over whether or not their armpits were male of female. Apparently, armpits are not necessarily the same gender as bodies they are part of.
That one was just waaay to existential for me.
7yo, screaming, one sunny afternoon, about the 4yo: “He’s in my bed!!”
4yo, red-faced, sobbing, gasping: “I want the penny, it’s mine, mine, mine. I want the penny!!!” Is given the penny by 7yo. 4yo throws it on the floor: “I don’t want it now!!”
(A roundup post with links to my notes and reviews)
Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars at the old blog?
They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
—Victor Hugo
“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
I enjoy your blogs greatly, but never ever comment. Today I couldn’t resist.
When my nephew and my son were 4 and 5 years old, they fought over imaginary goggles. Really – tears, wailing and if cooler heads had not prevailed, it would have come to blows. No amount of, ‘Oh look, here is a pair of googles exactly like the other ones’ would do.
We ended up setting the timer to take turns with the IMAGINARY GOOGLES.
Posted on February 1st, 2007 at 8:36 amMy kids had many fights about imaginary cookies. Over who got more cookies, who’s had more sprinkles, chips, frosting you name it. Serious rolling on the floor fights that would’ve ended in physical injury if I hadn’t stepped in. When we stopped playing that game they tryed to start a game in the van where they would “call” cars they liked and it would be theirs. Cars, motorcycles,atvs, whatever. That was short lived after I thought I was going to have to stop the car to break up a fight!
Posted on February 1st, 2007 at 10:01 amWhenever a toilet paper roll runs out, there is a rush on the bathroom for who can grab the card board roll first! I’ve actually broken down once and unraveled a partial roll from the spare bathroom, just to stop the chaos!
Posted on February 1st, 2007 at 2:59 pmThe Cabbage Patch says:
Lint, Etc.
Lissa at The Lilting House writes about the many uses of dryer lint. This came from the fight her daughters were having over said lint. The story of her children fighting over the dryer lint and the other stories reminded
Posted on February 1st, 2007 at 6:03 pmBeth says:
Each child, sitting at the side of a square table, ensued arguing (in public) over who had the LONGER side (a *square* table)
Posted on February 1st, 2007 at 7:27 pmA lot of “discussion” goes on in this house. Today it was over who was the wickest-no, they did not mean “cool”- among them. Umm…kids, we are suppose to be striving for the opposite title!
Posted on February 1st, 2007 at 10:03 pmOlder brother making a plucking motion and saying “I’ve got your eyeballs” to younger (not a toddler) brother – who wailed and wailed for him to “give them back” — and tried to take “them” back forcibly.
Posted on February 2nd, 2007 at 6:36 amI’ve never commented before, but I love reading your blog. I was educated at home from first grade through high school graduation, and I’m now a junior in college. When I was very young we lived in a house with a shower but no tub, so when we went on vacation in Florida and the hotel bathroom had a tub it was a huge deal – like having our own private swimming pool. This sometimes went to extremes though. We came back from swimming in the ocean, my Mom stuck her three small children in the tub for a bath, and a massive fight ensued over who got the “deep end” of the tub/imaginary pool (the end by the faucet). This continued to happen for the rest of the vacation, even with a rotation schedule. I’ve always wondered if it might have been simpler just to give three separate baths…
Posted on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:13 amA huge, passionate argument over which one of them owns the sky. Seriously.
Posted on February 2nd, 2007 at 12:18 pmOnce my siblings and I got in a fight about “The Little Red Hen” and whether or not she should have shared that loaf of bread with the lazy animals in the end of the story…..we were grown-ups when this fight happened.
Posted on February 2nd, 2007 at 5:53 pmThis is my first comment. I’m a long time lurker.
Posted on February 2nd, 2007 at 10:30 pmMy girls once got into a huge fight over whether or not their armpits were male of female. Apparently, armpits are not necessarily the same gender as bodies they are part of.
That one was just waaay to existential for me.
7yo, screaming, one sunny afternoon, about the 4yo: “He’s in my bed!!”
4yo, red-faced, sobbing, gasping: “I want the penny, it’s mine, mine, mine. I want the penny!!!” Is given the penny by 7yo. 4yo throws it on the floor: “I don’t want it now!!”
Posted on February 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am