Would the older children blame the younger one?

[Alpo]

The current Arc in the comic strip for better or for worse has April, who is about 4 years old, going down to the river to sail a toy boat, and falling in.

 

The family dog goes in after her, and keeps her afloat until Daddy gets down there and rescues her. They also pull the dog out. And the dog collapses but they figure that's just cuz he's tired. They're making a big thing out of April - is she all right? And the teenager points out that the dog is not breathing.

 

So the old family dog died saving the little girl.

 

The other two kids are at least 10 years older than April, so they've had Farley around all their life.

 

In reality - I know this is a comic strip and it's all fiction and all made up - in reality do you suppose the other kids would blame April for the death of Farley? If she hadn't been playing by the river he wouldn't have had to go in to save her.

 

There's a Dick Francis novel. Lawn party, and everybody parked their cars up on the hill overlooking the house and the grounds. One of the cars was a horse van. British term, but I visualize something about the size of a Snap-On truck. And they didn't lock their car.

 

"Who locks their car at a friend's house?"

 

And this little kid, finding the open door, got in and fiddled around and knocked it out of gear and took the brake off. And shortly after the kid left, it rolled down the hill. Right into the party. Killed 8 or 10 people.

 

The protagonist of the story was thinking that he hoped, for the kid's sake, that nobody ever told him that he killed all those people. But knowing people like he did, he expected someone would.

[Dilli GaHoot Galoot]

37 minutes ago, Alpo said:

The current Arc in the comic strip for better or for worse

 

lolz, "current"   This one first ran back in 1995, but to your question, I don't think there is a universal answer if the older kids would blame her, it would relly depend on the family 

 

On a side note, the line "I've seen the sunset thousands of times, too." from that comic  lives on in my house! 

[watab kid]

i lock my car everywhere ..........often have guns in there 

[Ozark Huckleberry]

I had a dog that loved to ride the boat. Head out in the morning, he'd be right there, hopping around until he got lifted onto the bow. Then he'd do a Titanic, 'king of the world,' pose on the foredeck as we cruised down the creek.

 

When we hit a fishing spot, he'd curl up under the helm until someone got a fish on -- then he'd be all anxious until the fish was netted. He'd inspect the catch, then return to his spot until the next hit.

[watab kid]

for what its worth , in my youth my younger siblings always blamed me as my folks always held me , the eldest responsible for every indiscretion no matter the severity - even when i was not present , im only able to say that i know other families with other dynamics of those times that might have looked at things in the opposite way but those were more rare than mine ,