That's not fair!!!

My five year old screams at the top of her lungs, 'I WANT CHEERIOS'.  I shout back, 'Well, I wanted to sleep till 7:00!'.  I hand her a waffle.  In my mind I said a lot more...
My reaction was the result of this:  The princess tent on her bed she was sleeping in fell off with her in it at 5:00am.  No one was hurt but there was twenty minutes of drama, tears and me not getting back to sleep.
So this lead to the 'cheerio meltdown' and a what is fair discussion?...
The next day my other child who is going through a whining phase (let's hope) has a monumental melt down.  We are at Wavering Pool where there is a massive slide and he is not allowed to go down because he does not meet the height requirement (stupid rule).  He whines, 'But that's not fair'.  I agree with him the first twenty times and try to calmly explain and redirect but the next time he cries, 'That's not fair', I do it.  I go old school on him and I shout, 'Lifes not fair!!!'
Then he gets this massive pep talk: 

'Sometimes we don't get our way but we follow the rules, we do our best and we get on with things.  Things mommy doesn't want to happen, happen every day.  I wish Poppy was here instead of in heaven but that's how it is.  Sometimes we may not understand why things are the way they are but we can't change them.  Maybe you should appreciate what you do have going for you and enjoy yourself instead of crying about what you don't.  So no, life is not always fair, but it can still be good so we should just get on with it.'

My four year old looks up at me with tears in his eyes and says....'But that's not fair!'
I'm sure he heard me....right?
A wise person once told me that you can tell how mature someone is by their reaction to being told NO.  I guess they are only 4 and 5 (and twins are 20 months) but it looks like we all need to grow up...

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