What Michaela is Teaching Me
Michaela with her lovely first grade teacher
Michaela is my oldest daughter. After having 2 boys, I really wanted a daughter and somehow, I wound of with 3 of them (yes I do know how it works!) but Michaela started it all. And although this might sound like a strange thing to say about a not-quite-7-year-old, I admire Michaela a lot. She really is the most naturally positive, determined person I know. When she was very young and trying to do something new like use a hula hoop or throw a ball, you would hear her say to herself, “try, try again. That’s what dad always says.” What kid actually says that sort of thing to themselves at 3 and 4? Michaela.
Michaela keeps track of the compliments she receives. She has a list of accomplishments that she’s proud of and willing to share. When she’s struggling with something, she will calmly put it down and take a break before she gets frustrated and upset. She finds reasons to ignore negative things people say to her. If she realizes she’s wrong, she’s more likely to laugh at herself than anything else. She’s a person of action and her judgement is such that if she offers a suggestion, I stop to think seriously about it. Her ideas are usually good ones. She just seems to naturally be the sort of person that I have struggled my whole life to be more like.
Not that she’s impervious to being hurt. Recently she came home from school in quite the foul mood. She insisted she was fine but I got an inkling of the problem when I heard her yell at her brother, “stop it! You’re hurting my feelings. People have been hurting my feelings all day.”
I pulled her aside and sure enough, a group of people she normally plays with at school had shunned her during recess that day. She cried and we talked about it. Once she was feeling better and I was starting to talk with her about what to do should this continue to be a problem she told me, “at first I went off to the side of the playground and was really sad. But then I realized that Max and Adella and Paige were playing tag. So I just went and played with them. I’m really good at tag.” That’s my girl!
I want to be like Michaela when I grow up! 🙂