Built-In Teammate

A friend asked me recently: How are your boys different in their patterns of obedience? Is one more compliant than another?

Well. In general, I would say that Tucker is more compliant than Tyler, but that is only because Tyler has a free spirit and needs someone to hold the string to his kite. (And perhaps it is because Tyler is still in the throes of toddlerdome, and Tuck seems to have just emerged on the other side of the darkness.)

But as for their patterns of disobedience, and who is more eager to cause a problem at our house, here is my thought: I don't know.

I don't know, because they are always in kahootz with one another. I don't know, because there's no way to tell whose idea it was. I don't know, because I'm always out-numbered and often the target of their great idea. Only one needs a lightbulb moment, and then he must merely whisper his brother's name, and... voila.

We have a situation on our hands.

For example, I don't know whose idea it was to empty the laundry baskets of freshly folded clothes. I don't know who decided to pour buckets of sand on each other's heads. I don't know who decided to fill the watering cans with birdseed and "feed the grass." I don't know whose idea it was to stick lunchmeat to the wall. I don't know whose idea it was to pour bath water into the trash can. I don't know.

I think this will be a lifelong pattern for my two buddies, and I can see a lot coming at me in years ahead. When they are eight and ten, or ten and twelve, or God help us, fifteen and seventeen.

I foresee some calls from the teachers, principal, other parents, and perhaps even the police, because my boys will be up for a good time - and they have a built-in accomplice.

I see it coming.