Sibling Sabotage

For those of us with siblings, most of us can remember at least one time when a sibling put something over on us. Usually it's not too serious. When we were kids, my older brother and I convinced our middle brother to eat the dog food (dried) from the dog bowl. I don't remember why we thought it was funny at the time. I do remember that we got a whipping with a willow switch.

When my daughters were oh, I think maybe eleven and seven, I put them on a plane to spend the summer with my cousin. My friend went with me to the airport. We waited to watch the plane take off. And waited. And waited. An hour later, people started filing off the plane. There was something wrong and the flight was canceled. Passengers were put on a later flight, but in the meantime the flight attendant told me that I needed to talk to my daughters and fix whatever the problem was.

So the conversation went something like this:

"What's going on girls?"

Older one: "Nothing."

Younger one is crying.

"Why is your sister crying?"

Older one: "I don't know."

Younger one: "We forgot the gum!"

"Well, that's nothing to cry about!"

Younger one: "She said I was going to..."

Older one is frantically shaking her head.

Younger one (more determined): "She said my ears would pop and blow my brains out!"

Why do kids do stuff like this to their siblings? Does anybody know? Mine were continually sticking it to each other. Of course if anyone else tried that, they'd all unite and turn on that person like a pack of lions. Sigh.

I guess that's something, at least.

Anny

Don't forget to stop over at OhGetAGrip where we're talking about tough love.