Wednesday, June 4, 2008

My daughter made me cry

So this morning, I asked my little girl to get ready to leave home and go to daycare. Got the clothes for her ready and then I took the garbage out (was literally garbage day!) Made some milk and gave her a little banana for breakfast. She decided not to eat the banana, just hold it and altho' I kept asking her to eat the banana and put her shoes on, she didn't and after me asking about 3 times, she decided to start crying. When she cries, she considers me as a towel so was trying to come and put her head on me. Her mouth was open, with spit all over, tears too and I had on me a white shirt, all ready to leave for work any second. So I got irritated and raised my voice telling her to stop crying for no reason, just put the shoes on and let's go. No result. She actually called me "mean". Put the shoes on her myself (asking her to eat the banana meanwhile) and when she was ready I opened the door and asked her to come with me. By that time, my husband, still in bed, told her that she can wait and go to daycare with him instead. So instead of coming with me, she went upstairs to him. I left home, got in the car and on the way to work, I started crying. I felt horrible for leaving like that, she crying and me angry and my husband thinking he got the situation under control. It just made me feel not needed. Seemed like my presence was not required at all and I was the kind of person that is not able to give back what a child needs. I really felt a failure as a mother. So later on, I called my husband to check how did it go after I left and he said that things were just fine. Looks like the main issue was that she didn't want to eat the banana at home but at the daycare. He told me that she started eating the banana when she arrived at daycare and was showing to her teachers how she could eat that. I felt a little better but still I was not happy. When I picked her up from daycare, she seemed just fine, actually in love with Dimitri, one of the little guys at her daycare. The morning was completely forgotten, she was laughing with me again and we had fun in the evening.
So, she cries, she calls me mean, she gets over with it during the day and things are fine.
I take care of her, I forgive what she says to me, I cry and I can't get over with my day.
When do we start taking the kids seriously? When do we treat them like adults, when do we treat them like kids and when do we treat them like babies? I am sure that some of you that have kids, are probably laughing with me on this, but she made me cry this morning. And I try not to cry easy. Lyrics from Coldplay:

God give me style and give me grace
God put a smile upon my face

In other conditions I would have given more attention, but that is a luxury in the morning when you are already late and still at home discussing with your kid how to eat a banana. In other conditions, I wouldn't have tried to make her reason and put logic into what to do but rather just hug and kiss her and she would have forgotten the little protest against me. In other conditions, I wouldn't have cried today on my way to work. I guess I am just human and depending on the magnetism around me, I become a positive or a negative field of attraction.

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