What I Learned Today written by my daughter

I had a great day at work, and when I have a great day at work, it will sometimes happen that I will come home to a mediocre to yucky day at home. Today was one of those days...it was something in between.
I was able to take Monday off with the kids because it was a holiday and so today I had planned on staying late at work to get caught up.
After arriving home, catching up with kids, cleaning the litter boxes, vacuuming the house with my son, getting my oldest daughter started with dinner, checking homework, plunging the toilet repeatedly, etc…etc...etc., (on top of it having a painful day of woman-issues, mom’s you know what I mean) I was pooped and I wasn't sure I would be posting a blog tonight.
My nine year old came out into the living room while I was going through some school papers and asked me this, ‘Mom, is there anything I can do to help?’ I replied in a jokingly manner, ‘Yes, could you write a blog-post for me?’ .
To my surprise, she was delighted by the idea! And immediately inquired about the topic she should begin writing on! Followed by the title she would need.
I must’ve looked like a deer in headlights.
Both of my daughters write. This daughter journals a lot and the other writes fiction and can write stories until the cows come home. But, I never imagined that this particular child would be eager to do something like this.
 Kids should have opportunities to do new things. They should be encouraged to explore different activities and different sides of themselves they should also not be put off just because they are children… so I let her.
I told her yes. I told her to write about what she learned today and to tell it in story form.
She jumped in and wrote this, and I have kept all grammar and words as she wrote it:
What I learned today: by my daughter
‘Today after my sister and I had finished our chores and homework, we were in our bedroom playing with our little animals. Then, our mom said that my sister was helping her cook dinner. So my sister and I left our animals out so we could play with them after dinner. While my sister was cooking our perogies, I went out to talk to her. When I went out, I saw my sister running one of her fingers under cold water. I asked her why she was doing so. She said that she had accidentally burnt her finger on the pan she was using. So I started fooling around and talking to her. It looked like she was close to hurting her finger again. Then, our mom came in and saw my sister’s finger, what was going on, and that we were fooling around. She told me to get out of the kitchen, and to stop fooling around. She also said that is a reason someone can get hurt, especially in the kitchen with a hot pan. I talked back and told her something she already knew. I told her that my sister had gotten the burn before I came in. She told me she knew that, and she told me to go sit on my bed for a couple of minutes. Right then and there, I learned my lesson, not to fool around in the kitchen because someone may get hurt. You shouldn’t talk back because it is contradicting what the other person said.’
Interesting little story, since what I learned from this is that my oldest had already gotten hurt. I didn’t know anything about it. Guess I was too late. But, hopefully an important lesson was learned by both of them.
Tonight my nine year old went to bed knowing that something she wrote was being posted on my public blog.
When I think about the look of shock, excitement and pride on her face when she asked me; ‘are you reeeeeaaaallllly going to post this on your blog!?!’…………I just have to smile.
She was a blogger today. And she loved it.

 ‘A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark.’ -CHINESE PROVERB

Let your child do something today that makes them feel like a grown up and which allows them to explore other parts of who they are.
Truly,
Amber

Popular posts from this blog

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Image
Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul
Read more

Would You Rather?

Image
My kids like to play a game called ‘Would You Rather?’. I’ve always liked getting in on the fun because they usually freak out when it’s my turn to ask, ‘Would you rather?’. I will ask, ‘Would you rather…have to go to school for 365 days a year, or go without television forever?’  Or when I say, ‘Would you rather eat broccoli at every meal, or spinach?’. It’s fun to watch them squirm. Now here is one for parent’s. School shopping is finally coming to a halt (thank goodness) and there are a few items on the market that I want you to see (if you haven’t already gasped at them yourself). They are: JCPenney’s (recently controversial) Shirt for Girls: JCPenney And the 'Eye Candy' (yes, it says Eye Candy on it-actually ALL over it) notebook that I hear no one talking about and which is selling at Walmart: So, hear it goes…. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Antie….etc….. 'Would you rather ' have your teen (or younger) daughter wear the ‘too pretty for math’ shirt?        O
Read more

Good Customer Service At Home

Image
Over the years, my careers have mainly been customer service based. I started in a family business and then moved on up through the rungs from waitress, to hostess, to sales associate, manager and eventually the GM of a hotel. In all my years, my training taught me that you should always do your best to take your customer all the way to what they need, make them happy, and never leave them until they are done with you. I pride myself on my customer service abilities. Though the other day, I think I failed at customer service in my own home! I was getting ready to cut my daughter's hair and because of how long it had gotten (she's been growing it out for a year!) I felt this time it would be best  if instead of me spritzing it with water, she could wash and condition it real quick. She was fully clothed so I just suggested she run into the bathroom and wash her hair in the tub. She’s fourteen. I suppose I just assumed that she knew how to kneel over the tub and do it.
Read more