PostingSometimes

Elder daughter Beanie is in the kitchen, toying with the pink plastic plate containing her supper. It's bananas, broken rice cakes and raisins tonight. Her choice. She glances down to where I am knelt on the kitchen floor, scooping up old rice cakes, encrusted porridge and moulted hairs.

"I love you, Mummy."

I wipe sweat from my face, push the hair out of my eyes and smile at her.

"I love you, Beanie."

She looks thoughtful for a second.

"Actually," (a favourite new word of the moment, signalling she is about to say something she knows I will not like) "Actually, sometimes I love you." She frowns. "And sometimes I don't." My heart sinks, part of it plummeting downwards towards my stomach.

Beanie now looks at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to provide an explanation of these difficult emotions. I'm not sure what to say. I put down the cleaning cloth and rifle through my memory for inspiration.

"You see, Beanie, when two people love each other and are close to each other, like we are, it's normal to have disagreements. Times when you argue or don't get on so well. That's part of loving someone. It's normal to get annoyed with each other, it's real, it doesn't mean you don't love them. The love is always there. You know like in your book?"

She looks thoughtful, clambers down from her turquoise booster seat and walks over to the other side of the kitchen, to her sticker board. It is festooned with 'trophies' - stickers from home and nursery given for good behaviour. She inspects the board, selects a sticker and unpeels it from the paper with painstaking care, worried in case she tears it.

She walks back to where I am sitting, having given up on floor cleaning, takes the sticker and presses it to the middle of my chest.

"There you go, Mummy."

I peer down at my chest.

Upside down, I can see the sticker has writing on it.

I look more closely. I can make out two words.

It reads: "Well done."

Posted 25 May 2009 09:44

Beanie

Comments

Vanessa said:

Well done indeed - an excellent explanation!

Posted 25 May 2009 16:53

Helen said:

Yeah, still not sure explanation is what she was after, but she seemed happy.

Posted 25 May 2009 16:55

Becky said:

Never underestimate the power of stickers! My mum used to makes me do all sorts of chores just to get a (in retrospect) rather creepy smiley face. Nice to know that you've got a daughter intelligent enough to realise she can use stickers with you!

Posted 25 May 2009 17:00

Helen said:

Becky, you are so right. I am 41 years old - and still absurdly pleased to get a sticker.

Posted 25 May 2009 17:36

zornhau! said:

Reminds me of when Kurtzhau promoted me from Signifer (carries the standard for a Roman Century) to Optio (2nd in command of the same unit):



"Well done daddy," he said gruffly as he paced the podium of Vindolanda's HQ building. "You've done very well carrying the eagle. You can be an Optio now."

Posted 25 May 2009 19:07

iota said:

It's lovely when they're still young and innocent. Sometimes now (just sometimes) I suspect the "you're the best mum in the world" comments to be followed by a request.

Posted 25 May 2009 20:19

Helen said:

All hail, Zornhau, Optio of the Bruntsfield Battalion.



Well, Iota, we really are the best mums in the world, at least when it comes to our own children.

Posted 25 May 2009 20:53

Catriona said:

Oh!

Posted 25 May 2009 23:20

Expat Mum said:

Like Iota, I'm a tad more suspicious when my little guy starts the luvvy thing - however, he usually goes on to list the transgressions that have caused my relegation to only being loved MOST and not ALL of the time.

Posted 25 May 2009 23:44

Stay at home dad said:

Hey excuse me.. I think I've got the copyright on this stuff!



Very good. I think there is something about mums and daughters that bring about these types of comments, I don't know why...



Sorry I don't pass often but it's great you're still here doing good things.



Sahd

Posted 03 June 2009 12:00

Helen said:

Lovely to see you here again, Sahd! You know what they say, imitation being the most sincere form and all that....

Posted 04 June 2009 09:44

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