there is always some kind of scuffle between the member in a big family, and often the problem is competition for attention, which can be cut off easily if each member knows his role here's question that has always puzzled me: why is it that in an average family of five mine say any combination of people up to four gets along fine. but when you add the fifth it's like dropping one uranium rod into the middle of the nuclear family. for some reason, putting all of us in one room generates so much heat that everyone starts to melt down. to illustrate, i offer a sanitised transcription of a recent dinner table conversation, without including all the swear words:
clementine: "stop looking at me like that, ella."
ella: "like what?"
clementine: "meanly"
husband: "ella, quit picking on clem."
zoe: "she wasn't picking on clem, dad."
me: "don't talk to your father like that."
zoe: "like what?"
me: "meanly"
do u have a headache yet? because i did. i had to find some way to make peace on earth. i suspected the problem might have been my approach: for year, i had been trying to reason with these people in a civilised we're all-rational-humans-here kind of way. but civility wasn't the issue. in my family, any two people are loving. any three cheerily cooperative, and add a fourth and each behaves like a good-will ambassador. but put all five together and it's like the actors in a bad community theatre production.my husband quietly excused himself to find the curacao. i consider myself lucky. evolution is a slow process but it took my husband only a month to perfect mai tai.
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