Diversion

My kids fight all day. All. Day. Every. Day. They are eight and six and they fight. I remember doing this with my sister (Hi Amy! I’m going to delete your comments on this subject as soon as you post them!) and we were two years apart too. I thought it would be different with a boy and a girl, but it’s not.

Constant. Bickering.

I find myself saying things I thought I’d never say like, “Do not use your karate moves on your brother!” and “Don’t put your feet in your sister’s face!” I say these things repeatedly every day. It’s not pretty.

So tonight I was pretty much at the end of my rope. I mixed myself a cocktail. And then I decided to channel all that good, amazing, smart, energetic kid energy into something positive.

I remembered a post I read on the Girls Gone Child blog about making fairy gardens.

So we made a fairy garden.

I showed them the pictures on the post. I told them to find whatever they had in their rooms that might be useful. I directed them to the cracked birdfeeder I’d recently planted with hens and chicks and told them to work together, and go for it.

And dammit, they did.