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WWJD?

What do you do with a child who says, on a Thursday night after attending four days of Vacation Bible School, that she doesn't want to go back on Friday, the last day? When she refuses and refuses and refuses to give a good reason, and then says that it's because "boys were kicking her," and when you refuse to believe that kicking would be tolerated at a church function for children, amends that to "boys were scribbling on my art project"? And when you explain that sometimes bad things like that happen but you can't let it get you down, or allow it to spoil your fun, she just reiterates (again and again) that she won't go to Bible School, she won't, she won't, she won't, you're mean if you make her. And the next morning, as you're trying to get ready for work, she goes on to say that the music at Bible School is too loud and hurts her ears, and that the snacks are no good ("Today it's cheese! You know I hate cheese!"), and that during storytime she has to sit criss-cross apple-sauce "on a floor with no rug!" and it hurts her knees. And you try to tell her, in a variety of ways, that she needs to get over it. You tell her that it's not a good thing to quit. And then she says, "But you're the one who started it! You're the one who signed me up! It's not my fault!" and you realize she's right.

Would you make her go back to Bible School? Because I didn't. Was it the right decision? I don't know. Am I afraid, very afraid, of her teenage years? Yes, yes I am.

Comments

aimee said…
It's okay. I think I would have done the same. (I say I think because my boys always say they don't want to do something but change their minds almost always.) But you did right.

I totally missed signing up my kids this year and Rhett was fine about it but Noah was broken-hearted. Can't win. Ever.
5:27 PM
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