Through Her Eyes

It’s hard for me to see my five year old make the change from little kid to young lady.  Shylee stopped me in my steps the other day when she burst out crying as we were about to walk out the door to walk to spring break camp.  I asked her what was wrong, and after a few failed attempts to understand her, she told me that she just wanted to wash the dishes like every other family.  My first reaction was to laugh, but I could see that her feelings were seriously hurt. 

Brian walked her to spring break camp, and I left to run some errands that I had to take care of.  I thought about what she had said, and tried to see it from her point of view. 

Since I got out of the Air Force I have made it a priority to make sure that the house is clean, the dishes are done, and laundry is washed and put away.  Since I no longer work outside of the home, I took it on as my job to work hard at home, but sometimes I forget who is watching and what that means to her.

Shylee took my new found role as selfish.  She saw me cleaning and working around the house and felt like I was pushing her away.  She didn’t understand why I would be only feet away, but not allowing her to participate in my day.  I never thought about it like that.  Its funny how there really is two sides to the story.

After I was done running my errands, I picked Shylee up from her day camp early and took her home because we had some cleaning to do.

Shylee helped me do the dishes,

 

Mop the floors,

 

Fold laundry,

 

And was a part of my day.

Bill Cosby said, “You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children?  Those who’ve never had any.”

So the lessons of the day are to see something new through someone else’s view, and to never let a kindergartener wash the nice glasses, because they will break them and you can’t yell at them because they may be having a hard day already.