Royal Arguments

In the ever growing, complicated saga that is Sydney’s daily existence, there are times when she is reprimanded and feels maligned by the process. Which is to say, most of the time.

Sydney doesn’t like to be caught doing something wrong, be told what she is doing is not nice, or find out that what she thought was right was actually wrong, which bodes well for her future behavior, I suppose, but makes the whole process convoluted and drawn out in the moment. Take for instance this exchange, in which I had just reprimanded Sydney for yelling at me while I was in the midst of talking to someone else:

“Mommy! I have to tell you something.”
“What, honey?”
“When superheroes are serious to princesses, they fight.”

Possibly in retrospect, I should have realized that this matter of fact statement had already been discussed and agreed to during the day by Daddy and Sydney. Apparently the agreement was that princesses and superheroes are equal, but when they are serious with each other it sometimes leads to fighting, which is why she assumed that I had gotten mad at her for yelling at me. But I didn’t know that at the time, and assumed that what Sydney was trying to tell me was that a) I was a superhero but I was being mean b) that she was a princess and therefore people couldn’t tell her what to do and c) she didn’t want to fight. Apparently I was wrong on all counts, so the conversation rapidly went downhill:

“Well, I can be serious to princesses.”
“No! Because princesses don’t like it when people are serious!”
I don’t even know where this princess thing came from, but I wasn’t buying it. “Well, princesses have to be strong which means they can’t cry when people are serious with them.”
“Why?”
“Princesses have to rule the country, right?”
“Well, I’m the ruler! And I don’t want you to be serious!!”
“Honey, I have to be serious with you sometimes when you yell at me for no reason.”
“I said I was sorry!!! I’m going to my room for 55 hours and I’m never coming back!!”

At this point, a seriously over-dramatic Sydney mopes slowly out of the living room – or stomps madly, depending on the circumstance, but reappears well before 55 hours are up with a sad expression on her face.

“What’s up, honey?”
“You shouldn’t be serious with princesses!”
“Honey—“ where’s the fast-forward button? – “Honey, I will always be serious with you when you yell at me.”
“But when superheroes are serious to princesses, they fight!!”
“Well I don’t think they should fight at all!”
“DADDYYY!!!”

After many tears and sobs and a version of the story that in no way matches mine, Daddy finally comes in to clear up the matter between the two of us. Apparently, superheroes and princesses need some kind of moderator when they start to fight. I’m not sure who won the final negotiation, but at last we reached a compromise:

“Honey… what will make you feel better?”
“You have to tickle me.”

That, I can do.