Marge's Sense of Guilt

Yesterday, Marge was very naughty. She was getting into EVERYTHING!

Among the things that she destroyed was this thing:

Here green fluff stuffed dog-bed.

She loves her green fluff stuffed dog bed.

But she also loves to tear things apart with her teeth. So, at this moment in time, chewing was a higher priority than sleeping, so the ripped most of the stuffing out of her bed.

I, of course, fussed at her quite firmly so that she understood I was displeased (after I took a picture of course).

Then I picked up the pieces of her bed and put them somewhere where she couldn't get them.

Now she has no bed, and she wanted to go to sleep. She became all kinds of pathetic, whimpering about the lack of a place to sleep.

Now, if Marge was a reasoning being, she would be able to put 2 and 2 together and realize that it was her own fault that she had no more bed.

But she is NOT a reasoning creature, so she could not make that connection. Which means that we could either get her a new bed which she will eventually destroy. Or we could let her live with the consequences of her actions by not getting her another bed for a while. But, here again, she would learn nothing due to her inability to make such moral connections.

I am looking forward to one day parenting a creature (aka a child) who will at least grow into the ability to understand "consequences". That will be nice.