Good Mother

Now, as regular readers know, we have a heavy lifter, if you will, someone who carries the bulk of the naughty behavior, but even a work horse needs a break and then one of the little fillies is right there with a whole new twist.   

The other night at bedtime, Eden must have had “Push Mom to the limit” in pen in her planner.  I won’t give you the gory details.  Suffice it to say she was naughty, repeatedly.  I stayed calm and firm and took away some privileges, which ticked her off.  She was screaming and yelling blame at me, as I tucked her in, kissed her and left the room.  Sweet dreams.

I was done with her.  Had the gypsies happened by at that moment I would have gladly packed her suitcase and carried it out to the caravan, so it’s good that they didn’t.   I went and sat on my bed.  She continued to scream and yell.  I practiced breathing.  In the repeated exhalation and inhalation some of the anger was released and a little compassion came in it’s place.  It stinks to fall asleep crying, blaming someone else for your unhappy situation that, if you’re honest, you know is your own fault. 

I went back in and asked Eden if she wanted to pray.  She said she didn’t know what to say.  I said I thought she did and waited.  She prayed and asked God to forgive her and then she apologized to me and I forgave her and then I told her to roll over so I could scratch her back and while I did that I sang a soft song that I’ve been singing to her since before she was born. Any of the tightness remaining eased and I felt her relax.

The song ended, but I continued to stroke and scratch her back.  

“Does that feel better?”  I asked.

She turned her head and whispered, “It’s like we’re making a movie, but we didn’t get it right the first time, so we get to make it again.”

Yes.  I’m just learning this myself, but that’s exactly how it is.