battle rages on

Yes, that's right, yet another battle took place after school, this time between Kate and her cousin. A simple disagreement over whether they had been in the same preschool or not erupted into tears, yelling and hitting. They did in fact go to the same preschool for a year, but my girls had been to a different one the year before. Basically a case of "I'm right!" "No, I"M right!" with neither side willing to back down. And then it progressed to "You're not even my friend. I only play with you at school because I have to..." and so on. Damn, girls are so MEAN. I had to butt in at that point of course, and shut it down, with my loud scary mommy voice that THAT WAS ENOUGH. After a short and hopefully to the point conversation with them regarding the rules of the house - no hitting, no calling names - I told them to go cool off. For once my daughter was outdone by someone else - usually Kate can keep a battle going for a good long time, but her cousin is apparently also a master at this! She sat in a corner under her jacket for close to an hour working on some stellar wailing, shouting at anyone who dared to come near her. Eventually Kate even started trying to coax her out with food. Of course, once everyone got bored and disappeared downstairs, cousin T ventured forth from her corner and accepted a snack from me in the kitchen. I was getting stuff ready for dinner, and casually chatted with her about cousins who are also friends, who also are in the same class at school, and who also spend after school time together every week too, and how that's a lot of time to spend with the same people, and how sometimes those people probably just need a break from each other...Then she wandered downstairs.  From what I could hear (yes, I was eavesdropping!!) there were a few more half hearted attempts to stir the pot back up - like not letting the other kids pass by without saying the password, which of course no one knew - but I guess all good things finally come to an end, and just before my sister in law was due to arrive Kate and T skipped up the stairs in near hysterical good spirits, hand in hand, singing. Friends again, ahhh. For now anyway!