Foiled

This afternoon as I heard the all too familiar strains of sibling strife, I went to referee. What I found was a common dispute involving media room occupancy, remote control rights, snacking and seating preferences. Erika and Natalie each pled their case to me, and both had decent arguments, but the arguments we’re eerily similar, which I suppose they did not see. “She’s bugging me” is way different than her saying that I’m bugging her.

We get so tired of refereeing. I decided that this time I wouldn’t do it. I turned off the TV and told them it would remain off until they could reach a compromise. They pled their cases more fervently and begged me just to tell their sister to leave. Nope, I’m in no hurry. Work out a deal.

I was curious to see how deep the stubbornness was. The cool thing was that “just storming off” was not an option since this would concede defeat. We sat in the nice quiet room. They traded a few verbal barbs until I warned that the next mean saying would give the room to her sister, That worked. It got real quiet. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. Oh, they moaned and groaned, begging me to just make the other leave. I kept repeating “No TV until you reach a compromise that you are both happy with.”

Natalie offered “How about this? Erika just leaves the room.”

I asked Erika if she was cool with this plan and to no one’s surprise, she wasn’t.

25 minutes. 30 minutes. This was becoming more about pride than entertainment. They were not going to back down. They begged me to just make a call, and then Natalie realized that they were agreed upon that. She said, “Our compromise is that we will both agree to whatever you decide.”

Erika nodded in agreement.

Curses, foiled again. I had to keep my word; they reached a compromise. Darn if it wasn’t the one thing I didn’t want to do! Next time I’ll add a disclaimer.