Friday, May 11, 2012

Rules.

Me: Could you go get in the bath, please Bubs?

Mabel: (sobbing. head pressed against the upstairs back bedroom screen window. looking forlornly down the street at her friends.) I don't like Daddy anymore.

Me:  What happened? Tell me.

Mabel:  Daddy made me come inside and quit playing. and NOBODY else has to go in yet, they're still playing outside.

Me:  Mabes, it's 7 o'clock. Everybody goes in pretty close to 7. They're gonna go in any second. All of them. You all have roughly the same bedtime.

Mabel:  Uh uh. Katelyn gets to stay up later. She told me.

Me:  Well, Katelyn is 9. You are four.

Mabel:  Yeah. I'm gonna be 9 one time. I should have thought better of that.

Me:  Yeah.

Mabel:  Why do grown-ups get to stay up late and kids don't?

Me:  Because we're adults, and adults make all the rules. That's just the way it is. But it changes, because you grow up and you become an adult. Then you get to make all your own rules. And the better your rules are, the better you'll do out there.

Mabel:  Yeah. That makes sense.

Me:  Yeah? Good.

Mabel:  And your Mommy and Daddy died right, so now you have me and you get to make the rules for me right?

Me:  Right. And I try to make good rules for you so that you'll be better at making your own rules when the time comes. Make sense?

Mabel:  Yeah.

Me:  And we'll work on letting you start making some of your own rules very soon, okay? It'll be one of our summer projects.  What do you think?

Mabel:  Yeah, I want to make a rule. And then Team Brookalieh has to follow it.

Me: Okay.

Mabel:  My rule is I always get ice cream after dinner and you have to give it to me and let me have it, and you can't say, "NO CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM FOR YOU YOU DID NOT FINISH YOUR DINNER!"

Me:  Daddy and I will conference on that.


A little pause. Then...


Mabel: I love Daddy.

Me:  I know. Go get in the bath.

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