Chloe neatly folded her special piece of paper and handed it to me like we were in school and she was trying to keep it from the teacher seeing it. It was too cute. Then she whispered to me, "Mom, open it up. Read it."
"Okay" I reply quietly in return.
And then I'm awed. This is what life taught her today and this is how she responded to it. I like days like that.
We had several issues that were the result of not listening or obeying or were of just messing up. But we tackled each one and went on with our day. No condemnation...just learning from our mistakes. But by the third one she couldn't handle it any more and yelled out with exasperation in her voice, "Mom, that's thrice I've messed up today!"
"Honey, did you learn something from each mess up?" She shakes her head yes.
"Then don't beat yourself up. You're a kid. You're supposed to mess up. That's how you learn. Remember what we read in our book today (Mountain Born, by Elizabeth Yates)? Remember when Benj tells Peter, 'never the harm done that can't be undone. Easy take it; easy right it.' That applies to your situation as well, Sweetie. Let's learn from this and move on.
Then she stopped beating herself up and moved on to poetry instead.
