The psychosis of my daughters

I absolutely love my sassy, creative, full of life daughters. Every single one of them. But at times even though we share the same chromosome structure and half the same DNA, I just don't get them. I don't mean to make light of psychological problems and disorders because I know they are real, but it is the only way to underscore how irrational they can be at times.

We, like most families with mutiple children, have had our fair share of ridiculous arguments in our house. Things like who has the most juice or whose turn it is to set the table or who knows the most Isaacs- (yes, this was a real discussion in our house because we know several Isaacs between friends, family and brothers of friends). Our latest ridiculous argument was between Annie and Katie the other night about this:

Yes, a chair and not about what you would think- not whose turn it was to sit in it. I had put the girls to bed. In the time it took me to go upstairs WW III had broken out. I heard wails, screams and gnashing of teeth that would have made the "Wild Things" jealous. By the time I got back downstairs Eric was desperately trying to figure out what was causing such a ruckus. This is how the conversation went:
Eric: "So you want the chair like this?"

Katie:"Yes, that is how I like it."

Annie:"NOOOOO! I don't like it like that!"

Eric to Annie: "So, you want to look like this?" (Eric turns chair.)

Annie (between sobs): "YES! That's the way I want it."

Katie:"No! She always has it that way and I want it the other way." (Eric turns the chair again and the conversation pretty much repeats itself.)

At this point Eric looks at me with a "They're your daughters" look. To which I just turn away and let him handle it because I have a strict clause in my motherhood contract that says I punch out at 9 pm. Unless someone needs a drink of water or is throwing up or having a bad dream or is sleep-walking- which Annie did a few nights ago- or I have tooth-fairy duty or someone suddenly remembers homework they didn't do or several other possibilities. BUT I do NOT deal with arguing over the position of a chair when I have been on duty for over 14 hours. So just to recap here is how Annie wanted the chair:

And here is how Katie wanted the chair:

Can you see the difference? Yeah... me or Eric either! When Eric came upstairs I asked him how he handled it. He said he put it the way Annie wanted it and told Katie to get over it and go to sleep. Sounds like perfectly reasonable parenting to me at 9:30 at night!