How do you handle...

KreativeKirl

How do you handle when your children say the following statements? 

That's not fair!

I'm telling!

It seems as though with my two younger kids DSD8 and DSS4 they constantly say "that's not fair" and "I'm telling". We have tried to talk through the situation to the "I don't want to hear it" "I don't care" as well as the ignoring it. I am running out of ideas. Any suggestions. 

KathrynMD

I would pretty much ignore "that's not fair"

as far as "telling" who are they "telling" and what will it accomplish?

If all the parents are on the same page, its sort of pointless.

katlizabeth

I don't have kids that age, but two ways I've heard/responded to the 'not fair' comment: 

-you're right, life's not fair (I swear my parents did this one!  it's very hard to argue with)

-the longer explanation-which I've used in my classroom- fair does not mean equal.  So for something to be 'fair' it doesn't need to be exactly the same as what someone else gets.

Telling: again, in my classroom-tattling vs telling

tattling is telling on someone to get them into trouble, telling is to get someone out of trouble (like is someone is hurt and you're telling to help them out) you don't listen to tattling, but you want to hear if they're telling. 

Good luck!

PrncesWife

DD has just recently started saying "no fair!"  She's an only child and not in school so I have no idea where she picked it up.  She does use it in the correct context, but I'm not entirely sure she knows what it means.  We ignore it.