Not my circus; not my monkey

from Idiot at the Opera on sadburro.tumblr.com

Via Tumblr (of course), I read that...

"Not my problem" in Polish is "nie moj cyrk, nie moje malpy." Literally "not my circus, not my monkey."

This is my new favorite thing to tell my children when they want me to mediate a ridiculous argument.

Yesterday, Ben was not feeling well and spent the day with Kris at the Moxie. One of the clients gave Ben a dollar (thanks, Karen O.!) and Kris took Ben to the Dollar Tree to spend it.

"Do you want to choose something to play with or eat?"

Ben wanted to choose a toy. He took care to choose something he and his siblings could all play with. He came home with a four-pack of mini monster trucks. (So Little Sister could have one, too.)

Tears, in-fighting and declarations of "you're stupid!" took place in the living room after Ben doled out the trucks and Cash apparently swiped Zoe's while she wasn't looking.

I could intervene, I thought to myself. Instead, I kept doing the laundry. I am the ringleader in that bigtop. But the living room squabble?

"Not my circus; not my monkey."

See also: Redditors, what other great expressions do you know in another language?