Sibling rivalry...

Do you treat all your children the same way?

Well, do you?

We try to. I think we succeed most of the time, but I have to admit that sometimes it's difficult. Like in the matter of discipline, for example. Threaten Boy #1 with withdrawal of tv-watching priviliges, or no dvd's for the rest of the week, and he normally crumbles. Threaten his brother with the same, and he runs off laughing; the only way we can exert any control over him is to use the Naughty Chair - and even that isn't always successful.

And then there is the matter of birthday parties. Autumn-born Boy #1 has had one every single birthday for the last 5 years. His winter-born brother, however, has been less fortunate. Mind you, what would no doubt be dragged out at every opportunity as a stick to beat us with by his older brother doesn't seem to bother him particularly; as long we make a big fuss of him (allowing his classic 2nd child 'look at me!' tendencies to be indulged to the hilt) and give him plenty of chocolate cake and train, plane and automobile toys, we seem to be getting away with it.

However, I think there is a bit of a tricky one coming our way very soon. Last year, when we took the boys skiing, we promised Boy #1 a Nintendo DS if he tried his hardest and learned to ski by the end of the week. He duly delivered and, a few weeks later, so did we. Boy #2, languishing in ESF nursery slope hell, was bored out of his mind and ran no more risk of qualifying for the same prize as his brother than I did of skiing with style and elegance.

But a year has passed. He's 12 months bigger and more co-ordinated. We've even managed to fit in a couple of pre-ski holiday lessons over at a nearby snow dome centre (for yes, believe it or not, even in Russia, land of what currently feels like perpetual winter, there are places where you can pay to slide down a snow-covered slope indoors all year round with 2 boards strapped to your feet). (Writing that sentence has made even me stop and query the intelligence of this past-time, by the way...)

So it may well be that come the end of half term, Boy #2 also qualifies for his own DS. And leaving alone the fact that he's a year younger than Boy #1 was when he got his, so I'm a year less comfortable with him having access to one, I can see a whole world of pain in wait if he exhibits the same single-mindedness about beating his brother in the gaming world as he seems to do in many other areas. (And let's not even get started on what kind of hell will break loose once they are skiing on the same slopes - although I'm hoping that's still a year or so away. Please god.)

The one thing I'm drawing comfort from in this is that neither Boy - yet - reads this blog, so they won't find out that there is now a Nintendo 3D (for which you don't even need a pair of those attractive spectacles) available should they care to look at the video in the sidebar on the right...

Note: this was - sort of - a sponsored post. But only a bit. I would have blogged about equality between brothers in any case, honest guv...