*happy little vegemite!

And another thing. Check out those claws. They're like mini velociraptors!

>> ^AeroMechanical:

You know, if they'd just used one of these suits in the Jurassic Park films, and only used their digital magic to erase the operator's legs, it would have looked much more realistic in the end.


They're making more movies.

>> ^messenger:

I have a feeling we're going to disagree on this one, but you might be interested in hearing my take.
I agree that giving in and letting it go would have been a bad choice on his part. However, I don't think the father communicated anything useful to the daughter. I don't think she was capable of receiving the intended message in her condition. An adult would have understood it. Maybe after a nap she would have understood it, but that girl there was beyond learning at that point. This is not a teaching moment.
To me, this scene shows disrespect for the kid's feelings. For her own reasons, not the least of which is being overly-tired, she very strongly doesn't want to put the bowl in the sink. For all the effort she's making to avoid moving the bowl, the parent is making as much effort to make her move the bowl. Both sides are working harder now than it would take to move the bowl. It has ceased to be about the bowl, or about chores, and now it's a battle of wills. The kid is learning that daddy is more powerful than her and his seemingly random orders are more important than how she feels. She's 3 years old and exhausted, so that's all she's internalizing. She isn't learning anything about responsibility, or cleanliness, or aesthetics or feelings. She's not learning why she should put the bowl away instead of her dad. Her dad's avoiding the task just as much as she is. The only difference is he's smarter and more powerful.
This is a common stance of parents, but not a necessary one. The first part of my answer is I would not tell my kids to do any chores, but instead ask them to do things, just like I would ask an adult, giving them as much autonomy as possible. If they didn't do them, I would explain my feelings about why I wanted them done, explain how it made me feel to see those things not done and how it felt to do those things myself without their help. I would hear their side about it and compare it with my own. If they still refused, I would establish consequences that don't require their cooperation (like I choose not to serve any dessert, rather than grounding). If you're doubtful it could work, this is what my sister did with her two. The result? By age six they were arguing with the parents over who got to do the dishes. Contributing felt like a reward for them because they understood the consequences of their choice either way.
The second part of my answer is about this exact situation. Let's say I forgot about my position on not telling my kids to do things, and accidentally got into a stupid win-lose (or even lose-lose) battle of wills with my 3-year-old daughter. Once I realized I was in a situation I had wanted to avoid and it was my fault (you can't fault the 3-year-old), I would change the dialogue to resolve it in such a way that both of us felt good -- or as good as we could, considering. First, I would never pretend that I believed the lie that it's too heavy. This just encourages the behaviour. I would start off by acknowledging her feelings (upset, tired, angry, frustrated, ...) and eliciting confirmation. I would aim for some sort of compromise, like she goes for her nap now, and we agree to talk about the bowl after. The goal would be her understanding the point, not getting her to move the bowl.
When she left, I would put the bowl away, and after her nap, I'd explain like I said in the first part about my feelings around chipping in. If she's too young to understand the connection between my feelings and her doing chores, then she's too young to be expected to do meaningful chores.


The method described that your sister uses is guilt tripping and extortion. Using emotional guilt as a lever and the threat of no dessert (carrot and stick) is hardly more enlightened then flat out requiring that the job be done. And every parent uses it at some point.

And as for 'you can't fault a 3 year old', are you fucking stoned? Talk about arrogance, 'oh, their precious little intellects aren't developed enough to understand what's going on'. Bullshit. 2-3 year olds learn things very very fast (I call it 'velociraptoring'), and they're a lot brighter than you give them credit for. Isn't that the point of your whole parenting by negotiation schtick?

Big whup, velociraptors been doing that for years.

I think we may have found velociraptor kryptonite!

Wow, that's fantastic! Really gives you an actual tangible, weighty(?) sense of how they moved, far removed from some silly CG abstraction. How I wish it were real.

no historically accurate! there is no Jesus riding it!

That's because he hadn't yet died for their sins and transubstantiated, at that point he was still in his velociraptor form. Everybody knows that, silly dilly!

It's amazing these things just didn't sprout wings and fly.

Dude, I know the guy who started that whole trend. He'd go loco if he heard you say that, mang. Don't sass Archaeopteryx, he will fucking cut you! (y'know, hyperextensible killing claw and all)

Heh, I looked them up while I was watching so figured I might as well post them

In reply to this comment by bleedmegood:
You make me proud to be a sifter....

In reply to this comment by RedSky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plesiosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stegosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterosaur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triceratops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachiosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosaurus

Missed a few I think.

You make me proud to be a sifter....

In reply to this comment by RedSky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plesiosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stegosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterosaur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triceratops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachiosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosaurus

Missed a few I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plesiosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stegosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterosaur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triceratops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachiosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allosaurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosaurus

Missed a few I think.

Whoa, auto-tuned Stephen Hawking? Awesome! That's like Jesus on a velociraptor. Only real.

If it's as much fun as Velociraptor Safari, I'm sold!

I think it would me more disturbing if he got eaten by a velociraptor, and I was totally expecting something like that. I'm kind of disappointed.

Is your avatar a rock formation that looks oddly similar to a vagina? Well, I'll be...

In reply to this comment by thinker247:
I was totally going to say the same thing.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
I hope a black hole is created at the center of the earth creating a wormhole between our world and the planet Zyptorgri millions of light years away, and an indigenous race known as Klyptrocists (half velociraptors, half Michael Vale) march their armies across the intergalactic space bridge and imprison our women and children and enslave the men of earth. That would be way cool.

I was totally going to say the same thing.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
I hope a black hole is created at the center of the earth creating a wormhole between our world and the planet Zyptorgri millions of light years away, and an indigenous race known as Klyptrocists (half velociraptors, half Michael Vale) march their armies across the intergalactic space bridge and imprison our women and children and enslave the men of earth. That would be way cool.