Righteous

Parents keep correcting their kids all the time. And we say things, far more often than we’d like to admit, based on patterns without even checking. Did you put your things back? Did you water the plants?

Inevitably, some of the things we say based on patterns turn out to be wrong.  And the kid will pounce on any such errors. Back-and-forth’s like this should be all too familiar. You always talk as if I don’t do anything right. That’s because you don’t do it most of the time. Everybody makes mistakes; are you saying you never make mistakes? Nobody wins such “spirited discussions”, but they happen with increasing anger on both sides.

After one such incident, later that night, I was reading my 8 yo daughter Calvin and Hobbes, and we stumbled upon this strip:

Triumphant, I turned to her and told that her righteous outrage is often just as fake as Calvin’s. She had the decency to remain silent, to not deny it… Parents: 1, Kids: 0. Oh c’mon, one is allowed to savour one’s victories, especially when they are so rare…