They’re at it again. The kids are acting up, jumping on the bed, punching each other and throwing things around the bedroom. The grownups are in the living room, trying to read, against the counterpoint of bumping and banging upstairs, waiting for the inevitable “Mommmmmm!”
Every sensible parent of more than one child that I know says they don’t worry if the kids are beating the crap out of each other. Noise is good and as long as the children are not using chain saws, they tend to ignore it as best they can.
What frightens parents is silence. That spooky suspended-reality sound of nothing happening between the siblings can mean only two things, both of them bad. The first bad thing is there has been significant bloodshed and the siblings are trying to stop the nosebleed and clean the shirt without anyone in authority findng out.
The second bad thing is they have found/obtained/discovered the magnifying glass, or lighter fluid, or your wedding pictures. Something very bad or personally embarrassing is now underway.
Perhaps this is what is needed in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Gaza and the rest of the Middle East. Personally I’d just stop coverage in North American media with anything more than a five second blurb every couple of hours: “Those crazy buggers in the Middle East are still at it. Now the overnight lottery numbers….”
I hate to say we should ignore them, as that is wrong and hurts all kinds of innocent people. However, both sides won’t listen to reason, common sense or even appeals to humanitarian aid for the innocent on any side. Revenge is all they know.
RoadDave 