Vida Evenson

Here¹s another ³what would you have done² question: our 2 cats each had 5
kittens. Penelope got 5 and Athena got 5 (both DD¹s are 8). Penelope gave
me one of hers and then another one of hers died (no, this is not a math
problem, LOL...... ³how many kittens were left²). OK... just kidding....
Athena decided she wanted my kitten AND one of Penelope¹s. Penelope got
upset. The background here is that Athena wants these two other kittens
because a boy is here that she likes (their family is renting here for a
week) and he likes my kitten and Penny¹s. Penny doesn¹t like change. She
wants me to keep my kitten and for her to keep hers. She doesn¹t want to
have to give up her kitten.

I very ineptly messed up the situation, getting stuck somewhere between old
habits and new ideas. I didn¹t know what to do. I couldn¹t say yes to one
child at the expense of the other. We tried to talk about it, but I ended
up making Athena feel bad for wanting our kittens (she¹d end up with 7 and
Penelope with 2), spewed the old ³how would you feel if you were Penny²...
ack..... I just didn¹t do it right. Athena held tight to getting what she
wanted and Penelope felt threatened that she might lose her kitten. I
didn¹t want to jump in and say that there are 9 kittens; I have one and so
Athena gets 4 and Penny gets 4. That¹s what I would have done a few years
ago.

What could I have done better? They did not solve the problem by themselves
(I was with them too) and the problem just got worse until Penelope left to
go upstairs to cry.

They¹ve let it go now, but I still botched it up.

So what would you have done?

Vida




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