This photo kind of sums up my relationship with Avelyn these days: she holds high-powered emotions in her hand and I am in her sights, ready to catch the brunt of her 7 year-old angst and it’s making me a little crazy and I wish there were dollar bills flying in the air to pay for all of the stuff she wants/needs, but in real life there’s not, so yeah. It’s been an emotional roller coaster with this one.
I love her forever, love her to bits, but it is SO hard to help see outside her own little world. Kids are selfish, man. Well, grown-ups are too, until we have kids who force us out of that selfishness so we can care for new, helplessly selfish little babies. Sunrise, sunset.
Alas, I find myself asking big questions like “how can I help her acknowledge her emotions but not be ruled by them?” and “how can I help her see all the beauty and goodness that surrounds instead of her focusing on all the things in her life that don’t go exactly as planned?” and “how can I come alongside her as she grows and help her not be a self-centered, dissatisfied brat?”
Seven years old. How am I going to make it through the teen years, at this rate?! And with THREE moody girls (four, if you count their momma) under one roof?! We are doomed. Doomed, I say!
Photo Credit: CheddarBooth
I have a 6.5 yr old boy whom is the last child left at home so essentially he is an only child and it seems like the other three managed to learn it by have siblings and I am also wondering these same questions?
i have the same comment here as i had on sara’s…just going to sit and wait and see what other people say…although jen had some great ideas over there!
Um. I *still* have these questions for my 12-year-old. Raising empathetic, grateful, functioning members of society is HARD.
Word.