Fairness

Sometime last year, my wife asked me how I would handle a certain situation when it came up with our kids. I don't remember the exact situation, but my response was that I'd try to handle it as fairly as possible. She asked me why, given that I'd often said that nothing in life is fair. I couldn't really think of an answer at the time. The best I could come up with in my own mind was wanting my kids not to resent me for appearing to favor one of them.

Another good reason occurred to me today. I want my kids growing up with a sense of fairness so that they'll object to unfairness when they see it later in life. (Note that I'm not talking about fairness in the equality-of-outcome sense or even the equality-of-opportunity sense. I'm talking about fairness in the I-got-less-than-I-earned/he-got-more-than-he-earned sense. Or, even better, the I-got-more-than-I-earned/he-got-less-than-he-earned sense.)