I picked Jackie up from kindergarten and went on a little adventure through traffic, crossing the center, singing song a great new album and talking. After swimming and playing in the sun, we had delicious SCOOPS ice cream, made right in front of us on a cold plate.
It was a great late Wednesday afternoon.
On the drive back we passed by a handful of playgrounds. She asked persistently to go to each of them. (She always does)
I explained to her that it is now late as we went swimming and playing and out for ice-cream. But her voice started to get shinier and prolonged.
I acknowledged her desire, empathized, talked through today’s events… she was fixated. Then she says: “I want to go to Baisoara. I like it better there. I don’t like my home.”
Then there was silence.
“Is this what you really want? …I can turn the car around and take you to Baisoara.”
“No. I like my home. Let’s go home.”
A moment later she asks “mommy, do you still love me even if I say stupid things?”
⁃ “I still love you no matter what! But sometimes what you say hurts me.”
⁃ “Why does it hurt you?”
⁃ “Because I don’t believe it’s true; yet you say it.”
⁃ “Little girls shouldn’t say stupid things. Because I love you mommy! And I really like my home”