Today my daughter did something brilliant. She shared a worry with me and I feel so grateful that she felt that was able to share something so important to her.
When it was time for her to go to bed and I thought she was settled for sleep, I returned downstairs, but within minutes she was back at the gate, at the top of the stairs, calling for me.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs, she looked sad and said “Mummy, I’ve got something bad I’m thinking about and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Of course, I immediately went up the stairs, took her back to her bedroom and sat with her whilst she told me what was on her mind.
“It’s important to tell your grown ups if you have a worry, isn’t it?” she asks.
“Of course it is,” I say. “A worry shared is a worry halved. You can always talk to me about anything.”
She paused for a moment and then told me “When we went out riding the other day and my conker fell in the road, I nearly fell into the road. Next time I’m with Daddy on my bike, I’ll stay with him. Because I was going too fast.”
To shed a bit more light on the topic, their dad had come round to our house. He decided to take our son and daughter out for a mini bike ride, during which time I stayed at home to get some jobs done.
Whilst they were out our daughter, now quite confident on her bike decided to speed off, leaving her dad and little brother behind.
Our son is only two years old and although he is very good on his balance bike, he of course, needs our full supervision.
At this point I receive a call from their dad asking me to come out quick because he was stuck with our son and our daughter had bolted. He was very worried.
When I came out of the house, she was at the end of the road, crying stood staring at something in the road and I think she was about to go retrieve it but he got to her in time, before I could get there.
As I approached them she was in tears, screaming her head off. Whilst they were out, she’d found a conker and because she was going too fast, when she stopped at the edge of the road, she must have dropped it and a car had driven over it.
She was very lucky that it wasn’t her that was driven over! Although, from what I could gather, I don’t think there was a car there, about to turn in, when she approached the road, so that is also lucky.
It’s times like these where being a parent feels like the scariest thing in the world. Our little humans are so unpredictable and our two are particularly headstrong. When they get an idea it’s a split second decision and they’re off.
Their dad was understandably very worried about it all. He hadn’t done anything wrong, it’s just one of those things. Our daughter chose a horrible moment to test a boundary but luckily the strength of her brakes prevailed and it all ended okay.
Well… except for the conker. (Honestly, sometimes if you don’t laugh at something, you’ll cry.)
Since this happened, it is clear that our daughter has been mulling it over in her mind. She thought about it and processed what we said to her about not speeding off too far and realised she shouldn’t do that because it’s not safe.
I feel so proud and grateful that she felt she could share this worry with me.
We often speak about how if there’s anything bothering her that she should share it with us and today she heeded that advice and shared with me.
It just shows that when we think they’re not listening and nothing we say or do matters; it really does. So to anybody that needs to hear it; keep going. You got this.
The Ruminating Mum 