Lesson Learned

I have learned a very valuable lesson today.

Being "The Daddy" is the worst possible fate that anybody could ever suffer.

I have come to this conclusion after the past 20 minutes of attempting to console my heartbroken little girl who came face to face with the reality that she is not in charge of the entire universe.

We're sitting here at DAC Kids- (Yes, it's my absolute favorite place. Yes, I've been her four times - count them, FOUR times - this week.) Kira came to me with tears all in her eyes because her newest friend wanted to be "The Mommy" and wanted Marisa to be "The Baby" and relegated Kira to the offensive role of being "The Daddy."

(Sorry honey. You aren't nearly as favored as we once believed. Apparently being The Daddy is just horrible.)

I have to admit --- I laughed. Really, I laughed pretty good there. I tried to hide it, but this isn't something I'm good at. So while I was laughing, I was also wrapping my arms around Kira in hopes that she would believe that I was crying right along with her and not realize that I was laughing at her extreme level of drama that she was devoting to this (non)important issue of role relegation.

She was convinced that this girl would follow her around, no matter where she chose to play, in order to force her to be "The Daddy" in whatever game that girl chose to play.

Trust me when I say that attempting to reason with a distraught four year old is never a good idea. It won't work. There is always one more "but" to be added to the argument. You can not win.

Instead of reasoning or arguing with her about her obvious distortions of the situation, I asked her what she wanted to do about it.

She chose to stay cuddled up in my arms for a good twenty minutes while she cried and wailed and sobbed about the injustices of it all.

She begged to go home immediately, which I denied because Marisa was still playing.

She swore she was starving to deathany and absolutely MUST go home and eat right away. (I didn't bring food with me today...shame on me.)

Eventually she sauntered off to play in the sand closest to where I am sitting. I'm trying to guess how long it will take before she is off playing with that same offending girl who so thoroughly devastated her entire world just a short time ago.

**Incidentally, before I was able to finish adding the links below, Kira had forgotten that the world has come to an end. She's nowhere to be seen. Imagine that...**

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