Children are Irrational

This is just a short blurb because perhaps someone out there with more experience with children can help me answer this question. Princess E, my dear daughter of three years, is a "eat on the runner". That is, she'll sit down to breakfast, or lunch, eat a bit, excuse herself, run around, then expects to come back to the table with everything the same as she left it. She is highly disappointed when I have cleared the table or when someone else, namely her brothers, have eaten her food.

Today, as I was sitting in my office, she comes to me and demands to know where her bagel is. More specifically, she declares, "Somebody took my bagel!" I say, "Where was it?" "On the TABLE! SOMEBODY took it." Of course I know who took it, it was her bagel-stealing older brother, Mr. Mookie. But I don't tell her that - you think I want to start a war? Instead I say, in my most motherly voice, "Well, Princess E,, if you leave food on the table, then someone is going to eat it. If you want to eat it, you should eat it when you are sitting at the table."

What did she say? "Humph." And walked away. I think it would have made more difference if I'd said the bagel fairy took it.