NY, part 3: Things Alissa said
Feb. 20th, 2008 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhu"What do you do if there's a fire? Drop, Rock and Roll!"
One night at bedtime the two kids were failing to be quiet, so I made the mistake of threatening that "If I hear one more sound, one of you is going to the other room." Of course, going to sleep in your parents' room is a treat, so they both started shouting "Ah! Ah! Ah!" So who gets the privilege of switching rooms? I came up with a foolproof plan: "I'm thinking of a number. It's either 1, 2, 3, or 4. Whoever guesses the number will get to switch rooms; Tani can go first."
Now anyone who has taken an introductory class in probability and statistics knows that this is a fair system. The first person has a 1/4 chance of being correct; the second person has a 3/4 * 1/3 = 1/4 chance of being correct; etc.
But Tani got it on the first guess, and from Alissa's perspective it was completely unfair because she never got a chance to guess. (Proper parenting would have been to let them both guess and then announce who was the winner.) She started sobbing. "I [sob] don't [sob] know [sob] why [sob] I [sob] can't [sob] talk [sob] nor- [sob] mal- [sob] ly [sob] I'm [sob] not [sob] cry- [sob] ing [sob] a- [sob] ny- [sob] more." And then came the kicker:
"Next time, you have to pick a way that's fair for a four-year-old, not just fair for a six-year-old. And I have to go first." I gave up trying to explain Bayesian theory and compound probabilities, and apologized.
This morning, she climbed into my bed, hovered over me, announced "I'm the wave of Kanagawa, and you're a boat!" and then flopped on top of me.
One night at bedtime the two kids were failing to be quiet, so I made the mistake of threatening that "If I hear one more sound, one of you is going to the other room." Of course, going to sleep in your parents' room is a treat, so they both started shouting "Ah! Ah! Ah!" So who gets the privilege of switching rooms? I came up with a foolproof plan: "I'm thinking of a number. It's either 1, 2, 3, or 4. Whoever guesses the number will get to switch rooms; Tani can go first."
Now anyone who has taken an introductory class in probability and statistics knows that this is a fair system. The first person has a 1/4 chance of being correct; the second person has a 3/4 * 1/3 = 1/4 chance of being correct; etc.
But Tani got it on the first guess, and from Alissa's perspective it was completely unfair because she never got a chance to guess. (Proper parenting would have been to let them both guess and then announce who was the winner.) She started sobbing. "I [sob] don't [sob] know [sob] why [sob] I [sob] can't [sob] talk [sob] nor- [sob] mal- [sob] ly [sob] I'm [sob] not [sob] cry- [sob] ing [sob] a- [sob] ny- [sob] more." And then came the kicker:
"Next time, you have to pick a way that's fair for a four-year-old, not just fair for a six-year-old. And I have to go first." I gave up trying to explain Bayesian theory and compound probabilities, and apologized.
This morning, she climbed into my bed, hovered over me, announced "I'm the wave of Kanagawa, and you're a boat!" and then flopped on top of me.