Define Good



"She's touching me."



     Last night the kids were getting ready for bed.  They were both upstairs brushing their teeth which is, more often than not, fraught with emotion and arguing and siblingness.  Why?  Because they both want to brush their teeth FIRST!  Or LAST!  I hear things like "Get out!" and "Move!" and the even scarier "words muttered menacingly under our breath so our parents can't hear what we're saying" on a regular basis.  But last night, I heard the following:

Owen: "Sarah, you're a good sister."

Long pause.  Water running. 

Sarah:  "What do you mean by 'good'?"

Owen: "I mean that I like having you for a sister."

Shorter pause.  Water still running.

Sarah:  "But you said 'good'.  What do you mean by 'good'?

What am I good at?"

Owen: (beginning to lose patience) "At being a sister!"

No pause.  Water still running.

Sarah: "But what does 'good' mean?  Am I nice?  Am a fun? What?"

Water is forcefully turned off.

Owen: (frustrated) "I'm trying to be nice to you, Sarah!

I'm trying to tell you I like having you for a sister!

Don't you understand that?"

Owen huffily walks to his bedroom.

Sarah: (calmly) "I guess. I still want to know what you mean by 'good'?"

Me: (from downstairs, laughing).  "It's a compliment, Sarah. 

Just say 'thank you' and go to bed."

Sarah:(responding from the top of the stairs)

"Okay.  Thanks, Owen.

 I guess you're a good brother too. Goodnight."

Owen: (from his room) "Whatever."

     When the two of them are home together Sarah spends 85% of her time trying to get Owen to do things with her, 10% of her time complaining to me about the fact that he's ignoring her or being mean to her, 3% of her time playing happily on her own, and 2% of her time engaged in activities that can best be summed up as poking her brother with a stick.  I firmly believe that 2% is the most fulfulling part of her day.