Hard Lesson

I have the hardest time persuading my 3-year-old of ANYTHING. She works things out in her mind and is fully convinced. She is not a people pleaser. I think I'm going to be proud of this attribute when she's mature in her faith and emotions, etc. For now it's painful. Take today, for example. I've been telling her since we got our swingset that she can swing on the monkey bars, but it's too far of a drop to jump down on her own. "It's okay, mom," she says. "I'll land on my feet." I promise her she won't, I explain how she's still pretty small and it's a long way down, etc. I reason with her. I plead with her. I sometimes even threaten her. Then I don't take my eyes off of her. But today we went to a park. Hubby is working evenings so I left Little Buddy home to nap and just took the girls. I was holding Little Sissy when I heard a scream. Big Sissy was already dangling from the bars and about to slip when she realized I might be right. You know that sick feeling you get when you can see something bad ready to happen but you can't stop it? That's the feeling I had as I tried to maneuver down all the steps, through the hoops, etc. to reach her. Of course she fell. Her mouth was bloody, she has scrapes on her forehead, her nose, her chin, her knees. She just kept crying, "You didn't make it in time. You didn't make it in time. You didn't make it in time." I wanted to cry too because I want to protect my babies from everything. I guess this is what they call discipline by natural consequence. I'm so sad she got hurt. I just hope this lesson means that next time I tell her, she'll believe me. Of course there will be more things, but I'm hoping the scale will start to tip in favor of "Mommy knows something" before she gets REALLY hurt! I'll try to post pictures tomorrow, when we've all slept and it doesn't seem so traumatic.