I can't win

File this one under "ways I am ruining my child's life, one day at a time." Today was a long day...we did our big inservice with all of our district's middle school math teachers, then stayed afterwards for another hour to meet with our department chairs. I bolted out and made it to Pattie's JUST in the nick of time (5:30 on the dot...closing time). I was so excited to see Gabby's sweet face.

Normally when Pattie answers the door, Gabby is right there with her yelling, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" and we have a nice little reunion. Today, Pattie opened the door alone, and I heard crying coming from inside the house. Actually, it was more like wailing. Gabby refused to come to the door; she was DEVASTATED that it was ME who picked her up, and not her daddy.

David only picks her up once in a blue moon, since it is really difficult for him to make it to Pattie's before 5:30. I'm usually able to get her by 4:45. So when Gabby is the last kid there, it usually means I am working late and Daddy is the one coming. As the group of kids dwindled and the time got later and later, she concluded that Daddy was getting her, and was so excited for the special treat of a Daddy Pick-Up. But whoops, here comes Mommy, ruining EVERYTHING.

It was somewhat disheartening, but also kind of funny...the kid was IN SHAMBLES. Because HER MOTHER came to bring her home. I mean really, HOW DARE I?!? Not to mention, they had made foam sun visors in the shape of giraffe heads, and the kids were all wearing them for pick-up. So Gabby is just standing hopelessly in Pattie's living room, wearing a big giraffe visor, bawling like I killed her kitten. She yelled, "NOT YOU MOMMY, I WANT DADDY! YOU GO WAY, I NOT GOING WITH YOU!" Even Pattie couldn't help but chuckle at her over the top, melodramic ways.

I finally managed to wrangle her into the car, and she was back to her normal goofy self within 1 minute of getting on the road. All was forgotten, and she loved me again. Later on I decided to use this as a teaching opportunity. I have been trying to teach Gabby about making restitution when she hurts someone or makes them sad. She has some occasional issues at daycare with stealing toys, being bossy, and the other day she kicked her friend Erin for no reason. So we have had lots of opportunities to talk about how her actions made her friends feel, and how she could correct it (apologize, give a hug, etc). I explained to her that it made me sad that she cried when she saw me...that I understood she had been really excited to see Daddy and was disappointed when it wasn't him...but that wailing and sobbing about it made me sad. I reminded her that when you make someone sad, it is nice to apologize and to try to make them feel better. So what does my child do? She runs out of the room to go find Daddy. When she finds him, she apologizes TO HIM..."I sawwy I cry when Mommy pick me up." FOR PETE'S SAKE!!!