The Great Debate of The Jacket

Does your child know how special they are? I hear a lot about how children should appreciate all that you do for them - and that's true. However, is what you're doing for them consistent with THEIR love language? Do you know their love language? Do you know your OWN love language?

When I mention all that you do for them, I don't only mean the everyday life necessities; hopefully you're doing that from a place of love and not to lord it over them. They are children and simply trust and assume that you will do what is necessary to keep them safe and well (in my opinion - that's how it should be).

I was touched by an incident that my little and I had once. It was an everyday struggle that was driving me crazy, and I couldn't understand this kid, not for the life of me.

Every single morning, we had the "great debate" about her jacket. We live in the desert and mornings can be cold in the winter. Like Midwest cold. Getting her to wear a jacket was next to impossible. Now, I could have stuck with my old standby of cause I said so! Instead, as she sat in the car madder than a wet hen, I asked her if she understood why I wanted her to wear the jacket? She said no and I said, “it’s because I REALLY love you and if something happened to you, like you were to get sick, it would totally break my heart”.

Did that make her less mad? Not immediately, but as we rode to school in mostly silence, she softened her stance, we wished each other a great day and we didn’t have anymore jacket issues. Ok, we have different jacket issues now. She doesn’t necessarily want to wear it all the time – but a blanket in the car is a MUST – in case she gets cold. Go figure.

I do have to tell y’all that I really thought something was wrong with my kid, because who wants to be cold? Maybe I don’t understand because as I get older, I seem to get chillier. What made me really reevaluate my stance on how my kid was somehow missing a link is, when we pull up to the school every morning, NONE OF THEM have on jackets and are mostly wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts. My observation? They’re all strange. Or maybe I’m the strange one, especially since they out number me. Digression.

The lessons that I learned from this are: 1. She sometimes struggles with some sensory problems and things sometimes irritate her skin, 2. She needs to know how loved she is, 3. Pick your battles!