Sometimes I think parents shouldn't love their children so much. Just wait a minute and hear me out. I see it happen all the time. In the schoolyard ugly stuff happens between kids and you see some moms try to protect their child from the inevitable betrayal and disappointment of hierarchies and evolving friendships. I see the dads pushing their sons to excel at hockey (or soccer or ...) because they have felt disappointments of their own and want to protect their children from the same. I have actually seen parents cry at the thought that their son might not make a particular team. Don't get me wrong, I am not all self-righteous sitting here saying I am somehow immune to this. Although I do try to keep it in perspective, I am guilty of it too. And that is why I am writing this post.
As I've mentioned, my daughter is kind of different, unique. In my opinion this makes her special. She does not conform and is definitely not the stereotypical princess and pink-loving 5 year old girl. This sometimes (read: often) makes her life a bit more difficult. But the funny thing is I think this would be her fate anyway. My son is very even keeled, very reasonable and he just kinda floats through life with very few ups and downs. But for my daughter it is different. Not only does she create her own drama but drama just seems to follow her around. Here are a few examples of what I mean:
- At 2.5 she got ALL of her hair chopped off on a playdate.
- At 3 she got hit by a tennis racket and then fell which resulted in 2 black eyes.
- Just after her 5th birthday she spent 4 days at Sick Kids with pneumonia.
See what I mean? None of these are her fault but it kinda fits with who she is and because I love her so much it really makes it tough on me! It is hard not to want to protect her from all of these things. But now, we've got another challenge and this one's a doozy.
My beautiful, active, spirited 5 year old needs GLASSES. I know it is not the end of the world but it just seems like we could use a bit of a break. She's barely recovered from pneumonia and her hair just got back to normal and now she has to deal with this?! 
She is none too happy either. I tried to convince her that they will be like a superhero mask but she isn't falling for it. I showed her all of the pretty, cool styles they have now (see pics) but she just yelled "I don't care! I'm not a grown-up!" This is because we don't know a single child who wears glasses so I can't even help her feel that she is not alone.
The thing is, I want to protect her from all of it. I just don't want her to have to deal with the insecurity and inconvenience of having to wear glasses. She is 5 years old!
So, tomorrow we go shopping. I'm going to treat her to lunch and make a big mom and daughter shopping trip out of it. That way she can get used to them over the weekend and conquer school on Monday. I guess no matter how hard we try these little people we love so deeply will experience rejection, embarrassment, and disappointment just like we did. Wish us luck. Oh, and any advice or words of wisdom are much appreciated.
yeah - i think you just have to play it up that glasses are cool. emily would give anything to have to wear glasses!
Posted by: ali | February 22, 2008 at 01:18 PM
Now that she's 5, she'll start to see more and more of her classmates getting glasses. There has been an explosion of kids in my daughter's class (grade 2) getting them, so much so that my daughter would LOVE to need glasses!
Posted by: LoriD | February 21, 2008 at 12:03 PM