Get Your Sister

What parent hasn’t said, “Go get your sister!”, or “Tell your brother to clean that up!”? This may present a case for stopping after having one child…I’m kidding.

I witnessed one of the most hilarious and thought-provoking family squabbles. While minding my own business on the way to a—I really wish I was on my way to somewhere interesting—public “ladies room”. I noticed a mom with a cast on her leg sitting on the floor with one crutch. The other crutch was being carried by her daughter, on the run—literally, the child was running. This little girl looked to be about six.

Then the mother commissioned her older daughter to retrieve her almost lost crutch. The older child looked to be about nine. Suddenly the children were right in front of me. A vicious fight ensued. The crutch was being pulled to-and-fro in a tug-of-war liken to a child’s episode of Survivor. At this point I was questioning if I should get involved.

If that wasn’t enough, the older child started pounding on the younger, little six-year-old, hitting her repeatedly. But the little one hung on to that crutch for dear life, taking the hits like Rocky. I felt like I had a front row seat to a matinee of Hunger Games.

The older child finally threw the younger to the ground, and while hitting her, the older one snatched the crutch from her little sister’s grasp. Leaving her younger sister on the ground crying and throwing a temper tantrum, big sister was declared the victor. She pranced with crutch in hand, beaming with pride, as she brought it back to her mom.

Mom said, “Thank you! Good job!”

“Thank you! Good job!”? What? She just beat the snot out of her little sister! What had I just witnessed? As I continued on my way I couldn’t help but chuckle.

I really wasn’t sure what to think about the whole thing. I suppose I could make a point about sending our older children to do our dirty work with the younger ones, but this mom was in an extreme situation, not that I condone the ill treatment the little girl received. Or maybe I could make a case for raising our children ourselves, not passing on responsibilities to our older children, but this mom had a broken leg.

So, I think I am just going to make the observation that it was horrible for a mom to appoint and condone one child beating up on another, under any circumstances. Plus it was just down right odd and funny.