Pink Giraffe Musing

My daughter is calling herself STUPID with increasing frequency these days. It is worrisome, frustrating, and making me down right crazy. How does happen to a well liked, well loved, beautiful 9 year old child? Why is she SO hard on herself? Is it genetics?? Personality?? Am I a bad mother?? And most importantly, HOW do I make her stop? Every time she would say it, I started by saying...."you are not stupid". To which she would reply...."YES I AM" and then proceed with a laundry list of faults and failures; such as, not knowing where the measuring cup was supposed to go, or leaving a wet towel on the floor, or coming down with a case of strep. Then there are the homework battles. She has ADD, and so, even with her meds (or if her mom forgets to give her the meds), she zones out, forgets and then feels, well, stupid. I want her to understand it is okay to make mistakes, and to admit to them. So, the other day we were in Target, and we each picked out a bottle of flav...

Motherhood. It is truly a gift. An exhausting, tiring, thankless gift. A gift that brightens my everyday. A gift that for many years I thought I wasn't interested in. And, one I am thankful that in the end that I was. One that I can call the best decision of my life. I love my kids. I hate to be away from them, even when they make me crazy. I have only spent a handful of nights away from them in their lives and I like it that way. I miss them while they are at school, or sleeping over at friend's house. My house doesn't seem right until they are here. My heart is glad when I see them in the school carpool line every day. They may come home and fight, but I am still thankful for every minute that I get to spend with them. Crazy, isn't it. Yet, I think I am not alone in these feelings. My love for them far outweighs and exceeds and sassy, crazy, crabby, mean spirited things they do. That is not to say they are bad kids, they aren't. While they can be all those things;...