Jasmin may very well be my second child, but when it comes to a talent for understanding the world and how it works, she is first rate! Jonathan my eldest, on the other hand, is more the expressionistic type, too busy imagining amazing sceneries to bother with the basics of how things actually work...at other times he can be the true scientists and investigator, with a natural curiosity. It is Jasmin however, who really gets things by instinct. she just knows! this know-how has earned her the title "house mister" in our home (or in Hebrew, baalat ha'bait - the owner of the house...meaning the one who knows and even dictates how things run!)
We are visiting family in Germany. This is our annual summer holiday. As a result, things are a bit more organised in our daily routine, as in, grandma cooks dinner and we all sit down to a family dinner daily. Also, my husband and I take time off and the kids stay with their grandparents. this means grandma runs everything in the order she likes.
Yesterday evening she told me that when she called the kids to dinner, all she had to do was call out "kids, dinner!" and Jasmin simply got up and shut the television and called her brother to come along... but Jonathan does not like having the TV shut (in any situation whatsoever!) and so he did not move. Jasmin returned therefore directly to get him. Giving him a lecture and shaking her warning finger at him, like the educator she became for the occasion. The one who knows how things are done, she scolded her brother for not coming to the dinner table. In Hebrew, my parents' generation used to shake a finger and say NU NU NU! to express displeasure with children. Hence Jonathan received the finger treatment from his little sister, and as my mother in law told me, he immediately obeyed Jasmin after being called to order... and so dinner once again was served in peace.
We do not use the shaking finger much at home, but I am sure that Jasmins kindergarten teachers use the gesture to indicate great displeasure when a child strikes another or bites (well they are only 2.5 year old...). I use it only when Jasmin hurts herself, then the object into which she crashed (table, chair, floor) and caused her to fall and get hurt gets scolded, finger treatment included, for actually causing Jasmin pain. This calms her at most times immediately.
It would seam that Jasmin has assumed the role fo educating her older brother to better manners. He eagerly returns the kindness by repeating various rules to her constantly (you cannot take more than one cracker...you need to go to the bathroom...you need to brush your teeth daily...) proving that he indeed knows the rules , even if he chooses to ignore then more often than not! It may sound like my children argue and condisend each other at all times, but the truth is that there is a lot of love and warmth between them, each looking out for the other in their own special way. they play a lot and hug and kiss and are always happy together (unless arguing over some toy, or who gets to do something first...well, children will be children).
