The title is something I have heard quite a bit lately. I'm sure that anyone with more than one child has heard this many times. We try to be fair, I haven't broke out the scale for serving deserts yet, but I've been close a few times. It seems like lately if I ask any of my kids to do something I hear "That's not Fair! why doesn't stink bottom have to do that!" Or if I give one kid something, and not the other, I hear "That's not fair! I want an antibiotic too!" Like all good parents my response is usually something like "Life is not fair, deal with it."
It's gotten me to thinking, what would it take to make life fair. Rules and Laws try to make sure we have a level playing field, but that doesn't always make it fair. For instance I have full use of my legs, but some other guy may be forced to use a wheelchair. There is no way that he can walk, so for life to be fair I would have to lose my legs and use a wheelchair. What about someone that is mentally handicapped. We can't flip a switch and have their problems go away. To be fair we would all have to have our brains damaged until we were at the same level. There are countless other examples of life being unfair and how we would all have to loose or give up something to make it fair. When it comes down to it, I bet if you asked the guy in the wheelchair if he wanted everyone else crippled, to be fair to him, he would say that's ridiculous. Most people who have suffered with a problem wouldn't want everyone else to suffer through it, just to be fair.
The next time my kids say "That's not fair!" I'm going to say "life's not fair, learn to live with it". Then I will lecture for a while and prove to my child that there is a way to make life fair, but they wouldn't like it. At this point they will probably say "That's not fair" because they either didn't listen at all or just don't care. At that point I will say, mostly to myself, "you think it's unfair now, wait until you're a parent." I'll then bite my lip, walk away smile and say "life's not fair, and thank goodness for that."
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i dido this. when my children (yes even my angles) say it is not fair i remember mom saying "cant you just be happy for them?"
ReplyDeletelet me know how the lecture goes maybe ill use it.
the other night kodie was doing a "lecture" and as the girls were walking away i heard savanna say "yea that was a short one" :)
Satan's plan was going to make it "fair", We all voted against it.
ReplyDeletethis is what harold says when the kids say "that's not fair!
ReplyDelete"There are only three fairs in the world the state fair the county fair and unfair."
Tell they get smart enough to say that there are more fairs then that. Then you have to slap them. It's the only way.