There is a sweet children's story called "The Runaway Bunny" which I used to read to both of our kids when they were small. While my boy liked the part where the naughty little boy bunny ran away from his mother, my daughter liked the very end the best - where the bunny realizes that the best place to be is at home with his mom.
She is my little shadow; she is the spitting image of me at ten years old, minus my snaggle-teeth and chigger bites. Somebody sprinkled her nose with faint freckles, plus she has two on her cheek that she named Sadie and Sophie. Unlike my own roundness at her age, she is slender and feminine.
Not only does she resemble me facially, but her emotional triggers and disproportionate reactions look pretty familiar too. Tears well up at any perceived slight, and she refuses to be dissuaded from her conviction that she is getting the raw end of every deal.
Her sensitivities are tactile as well as emotional; her socks are too tight, the tag in the blouse itches her neck, her headband is squeezing her brain. It really is exasperating sometimes.
And I'm having a hard time keeping up with the drama that plagues the friendships among her classmates; it seems like girls are more capricious these days with the notion of a BFF. They apparently change best friends more frequently than underwear, and it seems that at least one girl is always left out. My baby girl is extra-sensitive, so when it's her turn in the mush pot, she is completely distraught. They all hate her, she says. So-and-so is mean and spiteful for no reason and is trying to steal all her friends. The Mister has little patience with these histrionics, and so she saves up her frustrations for when I get home from work.
How do I tell her that girls are just mean and that it's probably going to be like this for a while? I remember being teased and left out by the "popular" girls and realizing that I would never be one of them. Today I am grateful for my life lessons - but back then I was shattered.
So I think that I will just pull her up on my lap, dry her tears, and then say, "have a carrot, my little bunny."
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