3/04/2013

That's not fair!

Do parents really get more lax with the rules as they parent their younger children? I don’t ever remember thinking while growing up, “That’s not fair! My sister always has an easier time of it than I do!”

I’m the younger one, however.

I’ve heard, in my family, and in countless others, the repeated phrase, “That’s not fair!” when a younger child gets a privilege granted or restriction removed earlier than it had been for the older child when they were the same age.

Though I didn’t live it, I completely see the point. It isn’t fair for a younger child to get something without going through the same hardship that the older child did before getting it. I can understand the anger of "Are you kidding me?! They don’t deserve that! They didn’t have to go through what I went through! You can’t do that!”

My non-pastoral and not even that parental thought is to say, “Life isn’t fair. Get over it.”

I think there's a better response out there.

In this week's Bible reading from luke 15:11-32, Jesus told a parable  . . .

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