A Dude’s Guide

I was reading in Charlotte Parent about a new study by some researchers at North Carolina State University. Oddly enough, the study found that siblings feel rivalry with each other. Imagine that. All right, I’m being facetious, but only a little. In the study, fifth- and sixth-grade students were asked what made them jealous of their sibling. While there were four main issues that seemed to cause jealousy, I think it can all boil down to fairness, or a lack thereof.

Young-ish dudes and dudettes are obsessed with fairness. That is, they only want to do the least they can do, while also getting the most they can of anything. Okay, sure, so do we all. However, at those young ages kids have a more difficult time overcoming their desires in those areas. Also, I think kids have a harder time understanding that fair does not mean equal.

For instance, if you’ve got a 15-year-old and you ask her to carry a large suitcase on a trip, it might be fair to ask your eight-year-old to carry a much smaller bag. However, your older dudette sure wouldn’t see it that way. She has the heavier suitcase so it’s not fair that the younger dude has a lighter one that is, to him, an equivalent effort.

So now that I’ve been bloviating about that, let me assure you my sister really was annoying. And got treated much better by our parents. I was, of course, perfect.

More tomorrow.

– Richard

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