Rationalizing

Last night, while setting up the Sorry game, tension began to rise during the distribution of colored pawns. Lilah and Gavin both really wanted blue. Here’s how it went down.

Lilah stated decidedly, “I’m going to be blue.”
Gavin responded with a touch of whine, “I wanted to be blue.”
Lilah retorted, “But, I really wanted to be blue, and blue’s my favorite color.”
Gavin cranked up the whine a bit, “But I chose the game, and I should get to choose my color.”

I followed this conversation, thinking, both of these totally sane children have completely legitimate reasons why they should get to be blue. In an attempt to regain a peaceful, harmonious situation, I came up with a rational solution, and declared excitedly, “Gavin, look, your pajamas are green! You should be green! Besides, both Gavin and green start with the letter G!”

Gavin pondered this for a moment, then responded, “Um, ok.”
Problem solved.

Lilah won the game with blue, if you were wondering.