This morning, while I was on double kid duty, I had to discipline my daughter for screaming in her brother’s face. I should say this: My daughter is pretty remarkable with her brother. She is gentle, she is kind, she is fiercely protective and fondly affectionate.
But she’s four. So sometimes she gets mad and yells or tantrums.
Recently, someone told me the most brilliant thing: He said that his daughter was a “threenager”. Such a perfect characterization of how our little angels can get grumpy and turn into little raging beasts of fury.
So as my daughter was yelling at her brother, I told her, calmly, to cut it out, and I left the room with the baby to get dressed.
2 minutes later I heard her door slam. From the room next door, I could hear her wailing, talking to herself.
“I guess my mommy will never love me anymore,” she sobbed dramatically. And on and and on and on.
And 10 minutes later when I finally opened the door, I found her sitting on her floor, holding a framed photo of the two of us, me holding her in the hospital just after her birth.
Can you say drama?
It’s amazing, but in that moment, I could totally see life 10 years from now. They say the days are long but the years are short…
I wouldn’t mind taking our sweet old time to teenagerhood.