Arrgh, ponies should be required viewing for roommates.

[Dunes]

I'm not entirely sure this has a point, but, I feel the need to put this somewhere before I can get myself to sleep.

It's eerie how occasionally, FiM will come up with an episode that's crazy close to something that's going on in my life. I just spent two hours with my three roommates: me and our male roommate trying to mediate between our other two roommates as they just unleashed months of tension at each other. And it felt just like Hearth's Warming Eve, with those two fighting over the same patch of land and putting us in the middle, except the power of friendship didn't happen to melt the proverbial ice and make everyone stop fighting. 9_9

By contrast, it's interesting to see the behavior of some of the kids I'm working with at the elementary school. There are a few who delight in being terrors, sure, but for the most part, you'll get kids gleefully exclaiming, "Let's share!" or at least reminding their peers of what needs to get done ("Guys, if we don't clean up we don't get our points for today!"). Because they're little and easily distracted, they'll often do things they're not supposed to, but they do at least know what they're supposed to do and will do it if reminded, usually. (Sometimes resentfully, but they do it, dangit.) And if you can't convince them to stop being mean to each other, just move 'em away from each other until they chill out. And they face consequences for being too awful.

But it seems like, when we all get to be adults, some folks just decide to throw all that out the window. Pfft, forget sharing! Forget compromise! Forget considering someone else's feelings! There's no people taller than me telling me not to be a jerk, so I'm just going to disregard anything that would make me change the way I do things, even if it would've made life more peaceful for those around me. Because "

... (whether or not I'm acting childish and unreasonable.)"

They just kept going around and around. "You did this and it made me angry." "That's not how I remember it." "But it's how I remember it!" "But this how I remember it and it makes you look like a jerkface." "Well you did this other thing that made me mad." "I don't remember that at all." "OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T YOU NEVER TAKE MY FEELINGS INTO ACCOUNT." And neither of them budged. There was clearly no meeting in the middle, just two different versions of "my way or the highway!"

Little cartoon ponies aimed at the four- to six-year-old crowd have a better, more nuanced understanding of friendship and reconciliation than my actual, adult roommates.

Kids' show? Pfft. It ain't just the wee ones that need friendship lessons. Is it so hard to love and tolerate? Or at least tolerate? C'mon.

[Rosewind]

I think what makes FiM so popular is the message is relevant to anyone, not just the target audience, and it shares it in a very unique way that doesn't patronize the viewer.

As for adults acting that way...good question. I think the only real solution is to set an example yourself and choose to not act the way that others think is fine.

Be honest. Be generous. Be loyal. Be kind. Be joyous. Combine those things and you'll find more magic in your life.

[StarletDawn]

Sometimes, when you grow up, you have so much pride that you get that "my way or the highway" feeling. But the kids in my town aren't like that, that's for sure. I mean, you should see this kid on the bus that knows more swears than a thirteen year old will ever know in his lifetime!!!

OK, lets just push him to the side and ignore him. Sometimes we find it hard to tolerate because we have too much pride. We think that because we're older means we have to be less tolerant of things and "what you say is final cause I'm me and your ways are stupid" (BTW, that's how cliques in high school are formed. So annoying -_-). There's a problem with that concerning My Little Pony.

Lets go to the anti-bronies. They can't tolerate that a lot of grown men watch it because they think it "an insult to manlihood" and "real men watch wrestling" stereotypes. And than they hate because they have too much pride in their manlihood and think that trolling us is gonna preserve that when they can just ignore us or try the show out for their selves and if they don't like it, than they can just leave us alone and go back to their life of watching wrestling and monster trucks.

Kids (especially little kids) are often influenced by toleration because they know their gonna get a reward after. Teenagers and adults will never get an award for that toleration. Just the feeling of knowing they have a new friend. If only life were like that, but in the crazy house that's my town, toleration amongst kids is never gonna happen.

For your two roommates.... better to stay in the middle than to side with them. The grass is never greener on either side, no matter how much look at it. And don't stoop to their level either.

And I have to agree with Rosewind:

Be honest. Be generous. Be loyal. Be kind. Be joyous. Combine those things and you'll find more magic in your life.

Couldn't of said it better myself somehow, I have a feeling that what I said up there has nothing to do with what you were looking for