I've been getting a lot of calls from my daughter's school the past two weeks. She's extra emotional. Not sure if it's holiday stress, the start of a flu, end-of-term fatigue, or hormones (gah!), but it's been tough for her lately.
When I was a kid, if a call or note came from school, there were consequences at home. That's not my philosophy. G may or may not be aware that I know about her day, but my take is if she's already spent two hours processing strategies and delivering any necessary apologies at school, why hash it through all over again?
When she climbs into my warm car, drops her boots at my backdoor, and flops on my sofa to watch Sponge Bob, she's safe. It's a fresh start. A new day begins every afternoon at 4:00.
Tonight, after a day of tears, she wrote me a new song on the piano, and I cheered. She improvised a mime production of Hansel and Gretel, and I laughed myself silly. We watched treadmill mishaps on YouTube and read a story about stray cats. I gave her a massage and a kiss and hopefully the confidence to try again tomorrow.
Being an 11-year-old girl isn't sugar and spice; it's more like crumbled tissue and crash helmets.
Maybe it's up to parents to add the sugar.
2 comments:
you're a wise Mom -- letting her day begin again at 4!
glad to see I am not the only one that does that - they have enough stress in their lives all day. Home needs to be a safe place to land!
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