An open letter to my four-year-old daughter…
My darling:
Want to know a secret? It’s not just you.
You don’t want to get up in the morning? Me neither.
Nothing sounds good for breakfast and you’d rather get eggs at McDonalds? Juice for you, latte for me, okay?
You want to blow off the day and hang around in your PJs until bedtime? Read my mind.
You want to watch just one more episode on Netflix? There’s a reason “binge-watching” became a household term.
Helping unload the dishwasher sounds like the worst idea ever? Why do you think I asked you to help me in the first place?
No vegetables for you; you’d rather have more cheese followed by a cookie and maybe some ice cream? Welcome to my world.
You don’t want to clean your room and put away laundry – you want me to do it? I agree. You can clean my room.
Can’t you just have one more story? The struggle is real, missy, and it’s called loving both books AND sleep.
I’m not mean, kiddo, I promise. Here’s the cold truth: I don’t want to be good any more than you do. I don’t especially want to floss or leave the library or eat broccoli either. I want pretty much every cute thing at Target and every creative thing at Michaels and every bottle of nail polish at Walgreens. I want to say yes to everything fun and tasty and no to everything tedious and dull.
I can’t.
But know that sometimes I really, really want to.
Someday, you’ll understand. After all of the nos and not this times and tough lucks, you’ll know the importance of fiber and vitamin A and frugality and a full night’s sleep. When you look back, I hope you see your mama trying hard to be good with you.
I hope you’ll cave a little to your kid too, and say no to the cookie but yes to the story. (I’m here to tell you: you won’t be able to say no to the story either. You are my kid, after all.)
Abbi reads. And reads. 