Getting What You Want

Jolena was looking at the photos from last week's story. She wondered why each boy was wearing one pink boot and one plaid boot, so she went looking for them to find out.

Jolena found the boys playing cards with Mariah in the workroom. They looked up when she came in.

"I was just looking at this photo from last week's story," Jolena said, "and I was wondering why each of you boys is wearing one pink boot and one plaid boot. Were you in such a hurry that you didn't notice?"

The boys looked at each other. Then Billy began, "Well, we wanted to wear the boots so we didn't have to worry if we got our feet in the water."

Emil nodded. "It's a good thing, too, because Billy slipped on the edge of the toilet, and his foot went into the water."

"I can understand that," Jolena said, "but why didn't one of you wear one pair of boots and the other boy the other pair?"

"It's because of the color," Billy explained. "We had three pairs of boots to choose from."

"Yes," Emil agreed. "We had the light pink, the plaid ones and  the dark pink pair"

"When we picked, we both wanted the plaid boots," Billy said.

"Pink is a girls' color," Emil agreed. "We didn't want to argue about it, so we decided that each of us would wear one plaid boot and one pink boot."

"That's a great compromise (KOM-pro-myz)," Mariah said.

"I don't know what a compromise is," Billy said. "Could you explain it to me?"

"A compromise," Mariah said, "is when you don't get exactly what you want but something you can accept."

"It's like when two dolls each want something that they can't both have, so they each give up a little to make the other doll happy," she explained.

"Yes," agreed Jolena. "Like meeting in the middle. It's a way to keep from having a fight over something."

"Do you mean like when we take turns picking which shows we get to watch?" Emil asked.

"Or when we take turns using the boy's bike and wearing the blue bike helmet!" Billy suggested.

"Yes," Mariah agreed, "or when two of us want to ride the bicycles, and there's only one left because two other dolls are already out riding. We did that the other day, Emil, remember? You offered to take the skateboard instead."

"The skateboard is just as much fun," Emil said. "It goes just as fast. So that was a compromise?"

"Yes," Jolena agreed. "Another kind of compromise would be if I wanted blueberry pancakes and you wanted banana pancakes, so I made us blueberry-banana pancakes. That's a compromise." 

"So instead of getting something you're thrilled with you get something that's OK, and we aren't fighting."

The girls agreed.

"Or maybe," Emil said, "you get something just as good, only it isn't what you had in mind, like the skateboard." He thought for a moment. "That's a good thing to know how to do," he added. 

"Can you use it every time you and another doll disagree about something?"

"Not always," Mariah said. "If you disagree about whether to do something that's dangerous or wrong, you shouldn't compromise. You should just do what's safe and right."

"Thanks for explaining what a compromise is," Billy said. "I think it will be useful to know how to use it."

"You know," Jolena said, "it was good you figured out a compromise about the boots, but you didn't really need to."

"Why not?" Emil asked.

"Boys can wear pink," Jolena said. "I know you don't have any pink clothes, and we don't think of pink as a boys' color, but there's no rule that says you can't wear pink if you like, or if there's only one pair of boots that aren't pink."

"Right," Mariah agreed. "If girls can build houses and walk around in space, boys can certainly wear pink."

"Your feet will stay just as dry," Jolena added, "no matter what color the boots are." 

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer, St. Baldrick's Foundation or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM Pacific Time.


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