It was Thanksgiving Day. I had food in two ovens and I was at the counter getting started on the candied sweet potatoes when she came in.
“I’m gonna cook something for everyone,” my five-year-old announced.
“Well, you can help me with the sweet potatoes,” I said.
“No, no, no! I want to cook my OWN thing,” she said. read more
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I thought we were over this. Back when my daughter was one or two years old, she was painfully shy. Faced with new situations, she’d cling to me, not letting go. Now she’s confident, outgoing and adapts well to new situations. Or so I thought.
I guess I should have had an inkling that the “slow-to-warm-up” behavior was back when I dropped her off at sports camp this summer. Even after getting dropped off at day camp for two months, when we changed to sports camp for a week, she clung to my leg. Every day, one of the coaches would have to pull her into the game. But every day, when I picked her up, she’d say camp was “Great!” read more
What have I done? I knew that reproducing had some risks, but I never expected this.
Last week, during quiet time in her room, I heard my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter crying. She wasn’t in the greatest of moods so I didn’t go back there right away, especially since we’re trying not to give too much attention to tantrums. Then I heard her sobbing. Her brother was asleep in the next room, so even if this was an attention-getting measure, I had to go back there to quiet her down.
I never thought it would come to this. I thought my daughter’s crush was cute. She likes a boy. She wants to marry him. How sweet that is in her four-and-a-half-year-old world. That’s why I was so shocked and sad about what happened last week.
We went to a birthday party. When she got the invitation, my daughter was beside herself! “Aiden! We’re going to Aiden’s party!” She loved Aiden. Aiden was the kid I heard about every day in the car after preschool, as in, “I didn’t get to marry Aiden today.” Apparently Aiden isn’t the marrying kind, but that was ok with her, she still had a shot with his brother, Liam, who she’d fallen for first anyway.
“I didn’t get to marry Aidan today,” my daughter told me as I picked her up from school.
Having heard this before, I said, “Sweetie, does Aiden want to marry you?”
“He says he doesn’t,” she said.
I seized the opportunity for a much-needed life lesson. “Well, Sweetie, if he’s just not that into you, you should let him go and find somebody who is. “
“But I love him!” she said.
