Bubble [un-]Solution

Yesterday Rachel had her friend Spencer over and she took him outside to play bubbles. Miriam went too.

After a few minutes there was a grand tantrum so I poked my head out the door to investigate. It was Rachel who was screaming.

"AHHHHH! I DIDN'T WANT TO DO THIS! NOW I WILL HAVE NO MORE BUBBLES!"

"What happened?" I asked.

"I spilled some of my bubbles," she sniffed.

"That's alright," I said, "You didn't spill the whole bottle. You can keep playing with what you have left."

The kids started playing again so I went back inside. Moments later more screaming ensued.

"MIRIAM! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? YOU'RE RUINING MY LIFE!"

I poked my head out the door again.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"MIRIAM SPILLED SOME OF MY BUBBLES!" Rachel raged.

"Just some? Well that means there is still more left. I'm sure it was an accident."

It took Rachel a few more minutes to regain her composure but eventually the kids started playing again and I went back inside. A few minutes later Miriam was pounding on the sliding door, screaming for her momma. Since that's me I went to investigate the problem once more.



I found behind the door a rather distraught baby girl, drenched in bubble solution. It was dripping off her hair.



I picked her up and went to talk to Rachel and Spencer, who were drawing a road on the sidewalk in the backyard (because we're cool enough to have a sidewalk in our backyard).

"What's up?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," Rachel said, "We're just drawing a road."

"I mean with the bubbles..." I prompted.

"Oh, I just dumped them out on the deck."

"Just on the deck?" I asked.

"Yeah," Rachel assured me.

"So, what happened to your sister?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"I just didn't meant to."

"You just didn't mean to...what?"

"It was only an accident."

"What was this accident?"

 "I dumped the bubbles on Miriam's head."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because she spilled my bubbles and you didn't get her in trouble! So I had to dump the bubbles on her head!"

"That's not very fair. I didn't get you in trouble for spilling your bubbles, either. I'm not very happy about this."

"I know."

It was around here that Spencer piped up with, "I just want to say...I didn't do anyfing!"

"It's alright, Spencer," I assured him, "It's just that Rachel won't get a new bottle of bubbles for a while. I'm not sure she deserves to play with bubbles if she's going to be dumping them on people's heads."

What I don't understand is how it helps to dump the remainder of the bubble solution out when you were upset about having some of the bubble solution spilled in the first place. Maybe it's just me but that doesn't seem like a very good solution.

And this is why I will never understand four year olds.