"Fair" is a Place With a Goat Barn

Princess has had an excellent week; probably one of the best. Which is likely why she needed to let loose last night.

She hasn't had even one tantrum in five days. Not one. And she can't have even fussed more than once. More than that, she's handled some things very maturely, and made some observations that I considered more than usually astute. She had a Girl Scout trip to the fire station this week. I arranged to be there (along with my three honorary Girl Scouts) because she gets triggered by anyone wearing an official uniform. The UPS guy is safe. But other than that. Not only did she not seem at all anxious, but she asked good questions. Thoughtful questions. Interesting questions. Questions that had, you know...answers.

Then yesterday I took a deep breath and told her that laundry needed to be put away before dinner if she planned to have a treat. She looked at me, nodded, put away her crayons--and went to do something else entirely. I steeled myself for the blow. After dinner she asked for a treat and I reminded her the laundry wasn't done. I widened my stance and closed my eyes and waited for it. She said, "oh! That's right! I forgot. I'll do it now." And as I picked myself up off the floor she skipped off to do her laundry. I stopped her on the way and told her she had handled herself like a big girl. I started to think about giving her allowance for this week.

But. Last night Peanut had her kindergarten concert. For reasons that I will go into in another post (because it needs a whole other post, believe you me), Peanut was upset and very very nervous, but had pulled herself together and handled it the best she could. So Josh congratulated her with a bowl of ice cream. He tried to do it discreetly, but there is no discreet where Princess is concerned. Princess initiated a conversation regarding "fairness" with Josh. And to her credit, she started out calm-ish. Slightly rude, maybe, but calm-ish. Of course, it was past her bedtime, so when, "but it's not FAIR" didn't pan out the way she hoped, fussing, screaming, and kicking ensued. Since it was not the appropriate time to point out that it also wasn't "fair" that she gets to go to Build-a-Bear with the Girl Scouts Saturday and no one else does, and that historically Daddy and I couldn't care less about "fair," I walked her up to bed, pajamaed her, read to her (which was probably hard for her to hear, with the screaching and all), sang prayed snuggled. I did notice she seemed to have to work really hard to have the fit. She got a little out of practice. And she kept forgetting she didn't want to relax.

The strange part is that she kept screaming, "but I WANT my allowance." As far as I know, no allowance was ever mentioned. It was quite possible telepathy. Stranger things have occurred in that child's brain.