Mama Bear

As a mother, one of my roles is to guard and guide my children as they grow. I wish I could protect my children from all of their hurts. I realize that we learn from our interactions-- both negative and positive-- with others. Evelyn was sort of blindsided twice this afternoon by a little boy her age. The look on her face as she cried just tore my heart into shreds. She looked utterly sad. I'm sure the smack to the head hurt, but I think she was also surprised and confused. I hugged her and told her how sorry I was that she'd been hurt. I told her that what had happened was not OK.

As much as I wanted to snatch her up and leave, I listened to Evelyn when she said that she wanted to continue her activity. I had to keep calm and squelch that inner "Mama Bear" that rises up when my cub is hurt. I also did my best to not project my own feelings onto my daughter. This was not easy! When I saw Evelyn's big tears rolling down her pink cheeks, I instantly thought "she wants to leave" because that is what I would feel in that instance.

We enjoyed the rest of our evening; we even stopped for ice cream on the way home. Evelyn decided on chocolate, can you tell?