In the interest of science, I present the following two exhibits.
Exhibit One
February 15, 2014 photo of Maggie’s place setting after her breakfast. Rather than looking at the cute heart plate, observe the clean black tablecloth around the edge. Maggie is 21 months old.
Exhibit Two
February 15, 2014 photo of Griffin’s place setting after his breakfast. Note the tablecloth. Griffin is 4 years, 10 months old.
Additional Data
- The photo of Griffin’s spot was taken after he had already attempted to clean up his area.
- Breakfast menu was identical (strawberry shortcake with crumbly biscuits) except that Maggie declined the strawberries and requested a poached egg. (To my eye, the strawberries and egg had similar properties — slipperiness, difficulty of fork stabbing, etc. — so these data are still valid.)
- Both ate with forks and occasional fingers.
- Both had similar napkins.
- Neither had substantial adult intervention.
- This situation is not an anomaly. Maggie’s area is typically significantly cleaner than Griffin’s, although she has notably inferior control of her fork and other eating tools.
Hypotheses
Competing explanations:
- Developmental stages. When Maggie is four, she will be just as messy. Was Griffin more fastidious when he was one? Memories are fuzzy and unreliable, but I don’t think so. We can test this in a few years with another set of pictures. (Strawberry shortcake for breakfast, February 15, 2017!) Update: See Two Plates, Revisited for the 2017 results.
- Core personalities. Griffin’s gene mix is less inclined toward maintaining a clean environment. (There is some evidence to support this from other arenas.)
- Parenting. Our methods of teaching Griffin and Maggie were somehow different, leading to these divergent results.
- Gender. I’m often skeptical of this, but perhaps there is a gender component.
- As a nod to my years in California, I shouldn’t omit the possibility of planetary influences… Aries vs. Taurus, anyone?
- Or, the Chinese lunar calendar was big in my family, so maybe it’s an Ox vs. Dragon thing!