“It’s my chair! I called the spinning chair first!”
“No, it’s my soup chair!”
“It’s my mandelin chair!”
I’m staring from one kid to the other, trying to figure out what this all-out brawl is about.
I didn’t know we had a spinning chair, a mandelin chair or a soup chair, whatever that means.
They’re all grabbing one of the bar stools, of which we have 6 identical ones.
With tears streaming down her face, my 4 year old continues insisting, “It’s my mandelin chair, I called it first!”
My 5 year old is still adamant it’s a soup chair and my 6 year old is determined to get the spinning chair.
Like a senior FBI agent, I’m slowly putting the clues together. I’ve gotten better at this over the decades; figuring out what’s the source of the spontaneous eruption of chaos between the kids – one of the most importance roles of a mother. Just seconds before they were all playing a board game together!
I need to get up to speed quickly before the chair breaks and the bowls of soup and mandelin land on the floor.
And once again I’m wondering- why do kids have to fight about everything?! Who’s first, second or third, where they sit in the car, on the couch, at the table, or at the counter.
I announce that actually the chair that’s being attacked is my chair and I sit down.
That’s when I notice that it actually does spin. The other chairs only turn slightly, this one does a full 360. For a moment I wonder if it’s supposed to be like that or if this is the result of being mishandled by kids.
I look at the counter at the bowls of soup and mandelin I just served and now it all makes sense.
They all want to spin around in the chair while they eat their soup. Maybe it makes it taste better?
I switch roles from investigation to referee, another full time mother role, and work out a rotation and turns and timers and for a moment it’s calm again, tears dried and the whole thing forgotten – by the kids, but not by me. I’m still thinking about it.
How do the kids even find these things to fight about – like such small things that I wouldn’t even notice? They make a big deal about everything!
Or could it be there’s something more?
Maybe our kids are onto something.
Maybe there really is something exciting in everything – even a spinning chair – and we’re missing out?
Not necessarily opportunities for an argument, but opportunities to appreciate small things. To find joy in the little things that we get too busy with life to even notice. Maybe if we slow done, we’d even appreciate the color cup or straw we’re using. There’s so many joyful moments waiting to be had.
While being a mother involves wearing dozens of hats, one thing is for certain; having kids forces you to become a way better version of yourself.
Little Yellow Notepad 