Let’s be honest, no mother likes to see her young children fight. The minute they start getting a little bit rough on each other, she will usually step in to break the fight up. In the old days, our parents had very physical ways of deterring us from doing this. And the thing is most of these fights were the product of a game that started to escalate. I and most of the people that I know had these scuffles with their siblings.
It’s just a normal part of growing up I think. In fact, I have never met a pair of siblings who never had a scuffle. When you’re growing up, scuffles are a way to reaffirm the hierarchy you have in the family. Each sibling will use the “weapons” at his disposal to give him an edge. The older sibling will use his strength to overpower the younger one. The younger one will use… Well, he will probably use his mother. There is nothing more effective than a younger sibling’s cries to make his mother jump into action.
Believe or not, these interventions also happen in the animal kingdom. Mothers in the animal kingdom tend to have their young ones on a longer leash. If things start to get rough, they figure it’s only going to be good for them.
Each one of them should know their limits and not crossing them is an important part of staying alive. Some mothers can’t see their young ones getting battered and will stop the fight themselves. The next video features a mother cat and two of her kittens. Everything is recorded by the cat’s owner. As an avid amateur-filmmaker, he makes sure he has his camera handy so he can seize the moment each time something funny happens.
One day the owner notices two young kittens playing on the kitchen counter. This game starts with the kittens pulling at each other’s tail or leg. Kittens like young puppies are very playful at that age. Biting and scratching helps them realize their own strength and their siblings’. A few seconds into the game, it starts to become a little more physical. The mother cat is nearby when she hears everything.
She decides to get closer to see what all the fuss is about. Initially, she gets up on only two legs. She can get a better view this way. As the game starts to become a scuffle, she jumps on the kitchen counter determined to do something about it. She first looks at the owner as if she was thinking: “if you’re not gonna do anything about this, I will.” She starts poking at the kittens using one of her paws. This doesn’t have any effect on them. They are so focused on their fight that nothing she does seems to stop them from engaging. What she does next is both incredibly creative and amazing at the same time!
