{"id":1316,"date":"2012-05-17T16:18:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T20:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=1316"},"modified":"2012-05-17T16:18:38","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T20:18:38","slug":"baby-girl-tough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=1316","title":{"rendered":"Baby-Girl Tough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Recently, I overheard an interesting exchange between my daughter (age 5) and her slightly older friend (age 6).<\/p>\n

The recording of this exchange, however, needs to be preceded by a little history. Lately, baby-girl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a bit frustrated with the fact that most people in her world are bigger, older and seemingly smarter than she is.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brothers can lift me and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lift them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she moans. Or she brings up the fact that most of her family and friends can read, but she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. And the list, if you let it, will go on and on.<\/p>\n

So I sat her down one day, and told her that size and age have nothing to do with how mentally tough a person is. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to tell you that I was speaking guided by the wisdom of the ages, after some time of careful reflection, prayer and maybe a brief yoga session.<\/p>\n

I was not. Among other things, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do yoga. Sorry. I have nothing against yoga. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just wildly immature about that sort of thing, so I doubt yoga and I will ever form a lasting union.<\/p>\n

And, I have poor balance.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I was just shooting from the hip, at least when I started talking. Fortunately, I read quite a bit, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done theater.<\/p>\n

She frowned when I mentioned the idea of toughness, and protested, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t punch the house down. I bet Daddy could do that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and then she hesitated a minute and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, he probably could, but I know I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I certainly hope he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t punch the house down, because then we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d really have problems,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but comment. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But strength is different than toughness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

She was clearly confused, so I attempted to explain the difference between physical strength and mental fortitude.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your toughness is up here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I explained, pointing to her head, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and if you want it to, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll stay there regardless of your age or size. Believe me, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m your mother, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen firsthand how tough you can be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

She was incredulous at first, but then I gave her some examples of the tough things she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done. I mentioned all the times, beginning at age two, that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offered to go with me into a dark room so I \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid of the dark.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I reminded her of the time she got four splinters deeply embedded in her big toe, and despite how scared of the needle she was and how it hurt a little, she insisted I keep at it until all the splinters were removed.<\/p>\n

She didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say much after that, so I really couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t determine if I had gotten anywhere with her. So that was that, until the exchange with her friend.<\/p>\n

The two girls were debating, in a mostly friendly but mildly heated sort of way, over something that escapes me now. They went back and forth a few times.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m older, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m smarter,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d her friend finally concluded.<\/p>\n

I would have stopped in my tracks just to be sure I heard her response, had I had time. But literally, without missing a beat, baby-girl crossed her arms over her chest and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tougher.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I think my work here is done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I overheard an interesting exchange between my daughter (age 5) and her slightly older friend (age 6). The recording of this exchange, however, needs to be preceded by a little history. Lately, baby-girl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a bit frustrated with the fact that most people in her world are bigger, older and seemingly smarter than she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[831,1089,105,100,1087,1088,1090],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islandlife","category-island-parenting","tag-coastal-life","tag-im-tougher","tag-island-life","tag-island-living","tag-parenting-girls","tag-parenting-on-the-fly","tag-youngest-child"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}