Realization at its best

Realization at its best

Jennifer is six. She is beautiful and smart. She is sweet and helpful and spiritual. Jennifer was fighting with her younger sister over a toy. That is what young sisters do sometimes. Jennifer was bigger and taking full advantage of her size (she was being ruthless) so mom had to step in.

I found out that it was Jennifer’s toy but that Haylee had it first. I explained to Jennifer that if she had waited a little bit Haylee would have gotten tired of the toy and she could have just gone behind her and picked it up. The other wiser option was to offer to trade a more exciting toy for the one she wanted.
The third option was even more clever, if she refused to trade take that rejected toy and pretend that you are having so much fun that she has to have that toy. I reminded her that she was older and that she could easily out smart her little sister and it could be fun and there wouldn’t be violence or crying involved.

We also had to talk about how she was feeling at the time. She was not sorry that she had handled it the way she had and she was mad that I was talking to her and she couldn’t learn because she was angry.
She went to her room to think about it. (they let themselves out when they are done thinking)
Later that evening I was in the middle of cooking dinner, you know that crucial time when everything is finishing all at the same time so it gets on the table hot? Well Jennifer had been reading and wanted to share it with me. I somehow felt that it was more important than dinner and listened intently as she shared an article from the friend. It was about trading with your little sister instead of fighting with them and about not being angry because you can’t solve things that way.
Wow! That was more important than dinner. She heard what I said and recognized it in print.
That was a true mom and Jennifer moment.