Telling On Yourself

     Something that drives me nuts is tattling. If it’s something vitally important, fine, but other than that, no. My twins had gotten in the very bad habit of tattling for the most trivial of things. One poked the other in the arm, someone called the other one dumb, you know, the truly earth shattering things. When this all started I would have them both stand there and I’d try to figure out what happened based on the things I was told. Adam would tell on Drew for hitting him. I asked Drew why he hit Adam; he’d say because Adam kicked him, I’d ask Adam if he kicked Drew. He’d say yes. I’d ask why he kicked Drew, he’d say because Drew threw a toy at him. I asked if they realized they were telling on themselves in the process of telling on their brother. The looks on their faces were so funny, stunned realization of admission of their part in the atrocity. Finally the whole thing got convoluted and trying to keep the timeline of offenses in order was not working. I had no clue who started what but was asking why they’d tell on each other when they both were being bad and that someone had started it and that since I didn’t know who exactly started it that they were both in trouble. This met with lots of whining which is also fun to hear, ranks right up there with tattling on my list of things that drive me nuts. So now, everyone gets in trouble and scolded or made to sit on the stairs. If I have nothing on one of them other than they were tattling, well, then, that’s their crime. I can’t make a decision on who’s in the right or the wrong since neither of them remembers what started their fight so to make sure I nail the guilty party and not punish the one in the right, both get it. It’s an imperfect system but it’s all I’ve got.