"It's broken"

When you are in the midst of poopy diapers, hissy fits, and sleepless nights, you don't often think that one day, this child will be grown. They will be forming opinions and feelings all their own. And your job, one of your MOST IMPORTANT jobs, is to teach these children the best you can. Today I saw a glimpse of that day, as I taught Lucy a very important lesson. (And I'm sure she totally got it...cause she's TWO!)

I think all kids are very picky eaters, and they notice the slightest discrepancy in ANYTHING. Well Lucy is no different, and an often used phrase in our home is "IT'S BROOOOKEN!!!" Sometimes, things are broken, it's legit, and I do what I can to fix it. But MOST of the time, it's fine just the way it is. Sure, that strawberry is cut a little different from the rest, sure, that apple has a little spot on it, but it's fine. Well today, we made muffins for breakfast, per Lucy's request.
She seriously woke up and said "I want a muffin!". Well all righty. 
After she wanted to try cutting and eating her muffin with a fork, her plate ended up like this:

"Take a bite Lucy"
"IT'S BROOOOOOKEN!!!"
Ok fine. Here's another muffin, I know you like to eat it whole, and I let you cut it, so I'll give you this one.

Two bites later.

The muffin "breaks".

"IT'S BROOOOOOOKEN!! NEED A NEW ONE!"

Something in me suddenly got very willful and stubborn (Wonder where she gets that?)

"No Lucy, you may not have another muffin. That one is just fine."

SOBBING

"Would you like something else to eat? Cereal? A banana?"

SOOOOBBBBBIIIIINNNNG

"Lucy, if you decide to continue to throw a fit, you need to go sit on the naughty spot"

Yes, I know. This sounds ridiculous. But let me tell you something about my child. She is a fragile creature. A stern face and some separation does wonders. 


Now Lucy is overdramatic. And she is a good faker. Sometime I really don't know if she is putting on a show, or genuinely hurt or sad. After I calmly told her to stop throwing a fit, she turned in her chair, so she wasn't facing me. I could see her gulping hard, trying to contain herself, as tears just poured down her face. It broke my heart a little. (Not enough to give her another muffin).
I scooped her up in my arms, wiped away the waterfall of crocodile tears, and whispered
"I'm sorry your muffin is broken, but it's ok. Sometimes things are broken, but that's ok."

I don't know if it was the quiet melancholy folk music playing in the background, or the two cups of coffee I'd consumed, but somehow, that statement hit me deep. And as I rocked her and she rubbed my arm for comfort, I started thinking.

Things are broken. ALL THE TIME. Almost everything in our life has something wrong with it. The car makes that funny noise, I have a stain on my favorite jeans, even my precious coffee maker doesn't do the "sneak a cup" feature anymore. Nothing is perfect. (There is SOMEONE that is perfect...and no...it's not me...although...I am pretty awesome.)

There are a million things I want to teach Lucy. I want to teach her to read books and music. I want to teach her to play an instrument. I want to teach her how to make a killer cup of coffee. I want to teach her to love all kinds of people. I want to teach her to laugh at everything way too loud. But today, I realized I wanted to teach her to love and accept broken things (and people?).

Unless she marries very rich (which is FINE by me!), she will have to live with broken things all around her. If not broken, at least imperfect. There is always something out there that is faster, newer, and does more than the thing you have. There is always a muffin that's not "broken". But you have to realized that your "broken" muffin, tastes just the same as the other. "Broken" isn't always bad.

Yup. I'm totally over analyzing this.  It's totally fine. That's what blogs are for. Long, philosophical posts about absolute nonsense.