![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Today, we had an opportunity to get my younger daughter an OLPC. So we went for it. She loves it, and she's learning the new desktop, and she's now got a gmail account, and she's playing KoL on it, and generally having a good time.
My elder ate her dinner in her room. When my younger sent my elder an email, my elder went upstairs and trashed the bathroom. Not "Keith Moon" levels of trashed, but pretty respectable: she tore the tissue box apart and flung the tissues around, she slathered one of the sinks with moisturizer, and she threw dirty clothes all over the floor. Then she stomped back to her room.
My younger was in tears; "I just tried to do something nice!". My elder was in tears; "It's not fair!".
?
After a bit of a cooling period, I tried to talk to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alyveritya, and she's still majorly upset. "Why does she get a laptop when she's only 9?! Why did I have to wait until I was 12 to get a clunky boxy computer?" Explaining that the OLPC couldn't do everything that her computer can do was apparently not the point. "How would you feel if you were 13 and your little brother who was 9 got a better computer than you did?"
At this point, I leaped up the "Worst Parent EVAR" rankings by laughing out loud. Pointing out that I got my first computer at the age of 31 was not going to help. Assuring her that her little sister would not be allowed to drive before the age of 16 would not rectify the situation at hand. Covering my mouth with my hand so that she could not see that I was stifling further laughter was about the best I could do.
Finally, I pulled myself together enough to say with a straight face, "You bring up a good point. I'll have to discuss it with your mother." And then I went downstairs, shooed the younger up to bed, and then burst out laughing again.
Nope. Not fair. Compared to what, I don't know, but it's obviously not fair.
My elder ate her dinner in her room. When my younger sent my elder an email, my elder went upstairs and trashed the bathroom. Not "Keith Moon" levels of trashed, but pretty respectable: she tore the tissue box apart and flung the tissues around, she slathered one of the sinks with moisturizer, and she threw dirty clothes all over the floor. Then she stomped back to her room.
My younger was in tears; "I just tried to do something nice!". My elder was in tears; "It's not fair!".
?
After a bit of a cooling period, I tried to talk to
alyveritya, and she's still majorly upset. "Why does she get a laptop when she's only 9?! Why did I have to wait until I was 12 to get a clunky boxy computer?" Explaining that the OLPC couldn't do everything that her computer can do was apparently not the point. "How would you feel if you were 13 and your little brother who was 9 got a better computer than you did?"At this point, I leaped up the "Worst Parent EVAR" rankings by laughing out loud. Pointing out that I got my first computer at the age of 31 was not going to help. Assuring her that her little sister would not be allowed to drive before the age of 16 would not rectify the situation at hand. Covering my mouth with my hand so that she could not see that I was stifling further laughter was about the best I could do.
Finally, I pulled myself together enough to say with a straight face, "You bring up a good point. I'll have to discuss it with your mother." And then I went downstairs, shooed the younger up to bed, and then burst out laughing again.
Nope. Not fair. Compared to what, I don't know, but it's obviously not fair.
