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The Calm Before The Parental Duty Storm
May. 13th, 2013 07:56 amSaturday night, as we were leaving my parents house there was a bit of miscommunication between Molly, Crystal and I that lead to me telling Molly that her scooter was already in the mini-van, which is why I will be making a very hasty trip up to Mount Vernon this morning.
Linus had his blanket, Calvin had his stuffed tiger, Crystal had a doll named Brianna, I had my stack of comic books... Molly's inanimate childhood companion is her scooter (named "Scootera", which is pronounced "Scooter-uh"). Any time Molly looks out the window and sees that it's not raining, she drags me outside so she can put on a show for me in the cul de sac. She has grand adventures beyond compare on that thing that the adult mind can barely comprehend!
When I opened the back of the mini-van and found that Scootera had ben left behind, Molly TRIED to show a brave face. She TRIED to play with other stuff outside. She choked back tears for a few minutes, but then the waterworks started.
It wasn't a complaint, it wasn't a manipulation, it wasn't about trying to get something - it was a pure expression of grief over the loss of a friend. It was so sad! In trying to console her, I offered to drive back to grandma's house first thing in the morning, and that made her feel a *little* better.
Once Crystal heard about my plan though, she was quite upset. "We can't affords another drive up there this week! We can't cave in and just fix every little problem for her! You need to tell her that she'll just have to wait till Friday. I agreed, and so we went outside to break the news to Molly.
Before we could even bring up the subject of Scootera, Molly was in Crystal's arms sobbing about how much she missed her scooter. Before we knew it, Crystal was consoling her and saying "Don't worry, Daddy will go get it tomorrow..."
There's a real and tangible power in human contact that can over ride logic any time :)
Linus had his blanket, Calvin had his stuffed tiger, Crystal had a doll named Brianna, I had my stack of comic books... Molly's inanimate childhood companion is her scooter (named "Scootera", which is pronounced "Scooter-uh"). Any time Molly looks out the window and sees that it's not raining, she drags me outside so she can put on a show for me in the cul de sac. She has grand adventures beyond compare on that thing that the adult mind can barely comprehend!
When I opened the back of the mini-van and found that Scootera had ben left behind, Molly TRIED to show a brave face. She TRIED to play with other stuff outside. She choked back tears for a few minutes, but then the waterworks started.
It wasn't a complaint, it wasn't a manipulation, it wasn't about trying to get something - it was a pure expression of grief over the loss of a friend. It was so sad! In trying to console her, I offered to drive back to grandma's house first thing in the morning, and that made her feel a *little* better.
Once Crystal heard about my plan though, she was quite upset. "We can't affords another drive up there this week! We can't cave in and just fix every little problem for her! You need to tell her that she'll just have to wait till Friday. I agreed, and so we went outside to break the news to Molly.
Before we could even bring up the subject of Scootera, Molly was in Crystal's arms sobbing about how much she missed her scooter. Before we knew it, Crystal was consoling her and saying "Don't worry, Daddy will go get it tomorrow..."
There's a real and tangible power in human contact that can over ride logic any time :)
