Be Grateful

Let's play princess 

This picture provided for free by ace-clipart.com

I often remind my children to be grateful for what they have. It isn't uncommon to hear me say things like, "Be grateful for those shoes; some children in this world, don't have any." "Be grateful for your sister, some children never have any sisters." "Be grateful for that broccoli, some kids are going to bed hungry tonight."

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I know I sound just like my mom. As I am writing I am realizing that maybe I need to stop saying these things because my children may learn to only see the negative. But, then they may turn out a lot like me and wouldn't that be so fun?

Well, when you are a mom, you get rare moments that let you know that your kids are actually listening to you. I had one earlier this evening. It went something like this:

I was in the family room with the girls trying to pick up all the toys so that the house would be clean when LG got home. My girls were determined to play dress-up, which means that they HAVE to dump out every costume item from the dress-up chest. I told them to pick ONE thing, so that we could put the rest away. They complied. I walked out to the laundry room to change a load and this is what I heard:

Sophia (3) says, "I want to be a princess, but I can't because I have short hair." Abigail (5) responds, "Some princesses have short hair; you can be a princess." Phia then says, "No,I can't, I need long hair."

Abigail ended the conversation just as she has been taught. She sounded like an old pro when she counseled her little sister, "Sophia, you can be a princess, and you just need to be happy that you have any hair; some people in this world don't have any hair."