My aunt has a tradition of sending ornaments to her many, many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews. Last year she sent Iris Uber Alles a porcelain oranment of a little girl holding a sign reading, "First Born Mommy's Favorite!" and Lola a similar one, holding a "Youngest Child Mommy's Favorite!" sign.
When we were putting up our tree, Iris gloated and gloated over her ornament, and it took a day for Lola to find hers, a stress-filled day for poor Lola. Then all was basically well until today, three days after Christmas, when the Sober Husband discovered that one of the ornaments was broken. After some more searching, he discovered that both those oranments had been knocked down from the tree, and both little porcelain girls' heads had been broken off. He could only find one porcelain head, though... and it fits Lola's "Youngest Child Mommy's Favorite!" ornament.
Now Iris is sulking about the house, screaming periodically, "Why does Mommy hate me?" and "Why does Mommy love Lucy more?" I told her to leave her mother out of this and that it was undoubtedly Princess Henry, the tabby, who had knocked the ornaments down. Now she's still stomping around, moaning, "Why does Henry hate me?" and "Why is Henry bad?" I pointed out that seeing as how Henry is illiterate, I doubt there was anything personal in it, but Iris thinks Henry must have known how much she loved that ornament and destroyed it out of spite.
7 comments:
Perhaps the cat isn't illiterate. This would prove my theory about them.
so mommy loves lucy more because, while she broke lucy's ornament too, she didn't lose the head? that's an unusual definition of love!
oh for crying out loud, what a bad idea for gifts for children! fragile things that encourage the idea of favoritism and competition for mom's love = GIFT FAIL!
Well, dear Hugh, Mommy didn't break the ornaments. Henry is the prime suspect. Lola takes it as an omen, though.
Sibling rivalry is rampant here.
I must say that I'm sorry. I never thought about the gift encouraging favoritism. At the time I thought they were cute Oh well - I'm old! Poor excuse isn't it?
Aunt Sher, don't feel bad! These children can turn ANYTHING into bitter rivalry. They loved those ornaments very much... it was just bad luck that the cat got to them.
Anton and I do things every day that get those children worked up into a frenzy of sibling rivalry and accusing us of favoritism. What really drives me insane about it is that I've seen families close up who had favorite children, and this is not one of them.
Obviously Iris has offended Princess Henry in some fashion and she needs to apologize. This is Princess Henry's way of notifying her of the slight.
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