Torture is an important part of sibling relationships and my boys are fast learners when it comes to finding that unique pressure point to drive the other crazy. Beautiful learned, as the youngest of four girls, how to torture her sisters and that knowledge is still being put to use according to some reports. My brother and I would use a mix of tactics right out of Bro-Jitsu to get under the skin and we can still pull out those tricks during friendly basketball games or early morning fishing trips. Lately the boys have been exploring the space of driving each other crazy and they approach it from two distinct camps. Primo is a psychological torturer, while Segundo prefers shock and awe.
Quiet play time is rare with two pre-schoolers in a small house but it happens on occasion. When it does happen I can count on screams coming at any minute and they usually come from Segundo. He’s a screamer of late and that high pitched objection is usually in response to Primo and his psychological campaign of terror. Primo will say “I’m not your brother anymore” and send Segundo into a fit. At lunch yesterday Primo wrote out Segundo’s name in pretzels and cheese and then brought him over to see and told him “I’m going to eat your name and you can’t have any!” Segundo was crying and begging him not to, even though this was not his food, and it meant nothing. Primo is brillant at saying just the right thing bring about the maximum amount of frustration. He is like a terrorizing poet with an audience of one.
Segundo on the other hand prefers brute force. He is the wrecking ball to Primo’s scalpel, coming in and kicking the trailer over with all the cars on it, or grabbing Primo’s last grapes and swallowing them whole. Out of no where he will charge Primo, leading with his giant head, and blow him up like Bob Sanders before that one injury, no not that one the other one from before. He turns peace into chaos with quick and effective violence and then goes back to playing with out missing a beat.
While torturing each other they are driving my crazy too, but I can’t wait to see what they will do next. I feel like a Social Psychologist observing these two poking and prodding until they find just the right nerve to exploit. Amazed and frustrated my day is spent officiating as much as parenting.
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HA! My kids, who I think are about the same age, are playing the exact same roles of late. I love the wrecking ball/scalpel idea. My younger revels in destruction whereas my older has taken to convincing the younger that she has committed some offense that she in fact has not. This morning the big sister kept telling the little sister that she “didn’t like it when [younger] crashed daddy’s car. That was a bad choice.” The younger then came to me crying and apologized. I am becoming a master of holding a straight face.
Great post, sir.
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It is a good thing theyare boys and don’t play with dolls as I used the “orture the doll”technique. It was very powerful and almost always caused tears. It is funny how just saying “I’m going to eat your name and you can’t have any.” can devastate someone but even as old as I am I remember. I also would come home from school and tell my sister that no one missed her when she was sick. How cruel. Why do we do those things? Maybe to make us appreciate and love our siblings so much when we are older?
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