June 22, 2005 - Wednesday
Tonight after Harry finished his dinner he asked for and received a bowl of ice cream. Jeremy was dawdling and, though he had not finished his dinner, asked for ice cream, too. Of course, he's been through this enough to know that he's just not going to get dessert if he doesn't do a sufficient job with dinner, but he plays the game (I guess it's a game). When he's really dawdling we usually say that he has to finish before everyone else is ready to leave the table and that directly relates to how fast Harry eats his desser. And so it was tonight. The difference today was that somehow more overtly than ever before we said it in such a way that it was quite clear that Harry would effective be in a position to decide whether Jeremy would have ice cream by how fast he ate his ice cream. That wasn't intentional, but rather the result of an awkward combination of what his mother was saying and what I was saying and the order that they came out. In hindsight, I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I do know that there was a distinct and tenuous moment when I knew that Harry knew that he was going to be responsible for Jeremy having dessert or not. Indeed, at that moment I started to try to qualify what we had said, maybe take it back, but ultimately I knew that was impossible.

So, what would Harry do with this power? Would he be the ruthless older brother getting the better of his sibling or would he play nice? I had no idea. Harry's a good kid, but he's getting to an age..

Harry pretty much joined with us, saying things like "you better hurry, Jeremy, I'll be done soon." But, Harry was stalling, too, purposefully eating more slowly to give Jeremy a chance to finish. I don't know how long Harry would have delayed, but Jeremy quickened his pace and finished his dinner before Harry finished his ice cream.

Siblings. What would I or my siblings have done in a similar situation? I don't know. I suspect it probably would have depended on what else had happened that day.


Comments, Opinions?