Inverse Golden Rule

Let me be the first to predict: Blogspot is dying

As I've mentioned, I remember a lot more of my childhood than most people seem to, and this enables my wife¹ to say "Now I know where they got it from" if ever I mention that I remember doing something bad or frustrating that the kids are currently doing.

Take for example when my parents tried to explain the Golden Rule to me. I immediately developed the inverse, a justification for revenge: If someone does something to you that you don't like, that means they want you to do it back to them.

There is no arguing with a five-year-old when they have their back up. If you don't have kids, then you don't know what I mean. No matter how nice, and patient, and kind you try to be, you just cannot get a point across to a five-year-old who doesn't want to get the point. Imagine it like this: Julia Roberts gets on a big yellow parade float and slowly drives along the road handing out candies to kids. Everyone likes Julia Roberts, right? And candy?



OK, but when trying to explain something to a five-year-old who'd rather not hear it, you're Julia Roberts handing out candy from the parade float ... on the road from Baghdad to Ramadi. How far would she get before the fireball?

I inverted the Golden Rule into a justification for revenge, and so has my son. As a child, I shouted the Golden Rule as justification for whatever I did wrong to other people, and so does my son.

A chip off the old block.


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1
She's asked me to stop calling her "my lovely wife" in this blog. I think she's trying to be modest about how gosh-darn, drop-dead beautiful she is. Grrrr-owl!