Afton is very outgoing, and when we go somewhere, she is the first to join the other kids in whatever adventure they are having.
Vivienne is more of a homebody and she sticks pretty close to me or Rudy and just watches everything intently.
Delaney is the independent one. She'll wander off somewhere and entertain herself for long periods of time with no problem at all.
While Dad was here, we took the kids to the Monastery here in Mesa, and we sat down to a few drinks while the girls all played pretty much in the manner I described above. But at one point my precious Delaney decided she was wanted to interact with another girl.
This girl was probably four or five and she was filling a big bucket with sand. Delaney wanted to help her, so she started scooping up sand and putting it in the bucket also. But the little girl wanted nothing to do with Delaney, so she scooped all of Laney's sand back out and then told Laney she didn't want to play with her, but rather, she wanted to play with Afton, who was building a sand castle a few feet away.
Laney just sat there for a minute, and then her head started to lower and her hands fell to her sides and her shovel hit the sand. She was rejected by this girl, in pretty much her first real attempt at playing with another kid.
And in that moment my heart broke into a million little pieces for her.
I didn't know what to do. I wanted to yell at the girl for being mean, but I didn't. I went back to my chair and Laney followed me, then cried in my lap, breaking my heart even more.
Ugh.
Ugh.
I was just so lost for her in that moment.
She bounced back a few minutes later like it was no big deal, but it still makes me sad when I think about it.
Maybe it stems from my own feelings and memories of rejection as I grew up, I don't know. But hopefully I can teach her that it's no big deal and that the people who truly matter are not the ones who reject you.
She bounced back a few minutes later like it was no big deal, but it still makes me sad when I think about it.
Maybe it stems from my own feelings and memories of rejection as I grew up, I don't know. But hopefully I can teach her that it's no big deal and that the people who truly matter are not the ones who reject you.
Have you guys experienced heartbreak with your children? What was it like for you?
1 comment:
Yesterday I took Hannah, my three year old to Brackenridge Park to play on the playground. There was a privet school there with kids from Alamo Heights school district around the ages of seven to eight year olds. They were running around pushing and shoving acting like they had no clue that Hannah was twice as small as her. I felt bad cause she looked discouraged and just wanted to play. I decided to get up on that play ground and take my babies hand. Now i was twice the size of those over privledged kids. Hannah got to play and was happy Momma showed everyone who the REAL BOSS was.
Post a Comment