Making Hard Choices

Dear Natalia,

I am very proud of you today. You made a very hard choice.

Gabriel is going around our little street with his friends quite a bit in the afternoons, they just bounce from our house, to Jake's house to Jaren's house. They have a lot of fun together. Well, I have told you that you aren't old enough yet to go with them yet when they leave our house. When they are here, you have a great time. But when they go to someone else's place, you have to stay behind... and you hate it.

Well, today you were all out in the front yard playing and climbing. The boys decided to go down to Jake's house to play in his backyard. They just sprinted off and left you. You started to run after them, but then you got to the edge of our property line in the front yard. You just stood there, looked after them and then started to cry really hard.

I saw all of this happen through the window. You cried to the door and came inside, sat on my lap and just cried, "They left me! I can't go with them, they left me!"

But then I looked at you and said, "Talia, you made such a good choice! You obeyed mom! You didn't go past where you knew you had to be. You stayed here and obeyed me. You made such a good choice." I was soooooooooo happy that you knew your boundary and stayed within those boundaries.

After a couple of minutes of telling you this, you looked at me and smiled, "I did make a good choice!". Then later in the car I said again, "Talia, you made a very hard choice, but you made a good choice. It was hard huh?"

You said, "Yes mom, it was hard not to go with the boys. But I made a good choice and obeyed."

I felt like it was a HUGE victory! I love you,

Your Mom