It's just not fair

Schmoo and I had a real life experience, life's not fair moment today. She was invited to a birthday party at our local movie theatre which included a private viewing of the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". Now, I'm a huge fan of this book. It's one of my all time kids favourites, but I've heard really mixed reviews about the movie. The book is mostly pictures. The movie has all kinds of back story about why the little boy is so mad. Apparently there's lots of anger in the movie. Another mom in his class had told us that she had taken her kids to see it and both of them came away scared, plus they left early. So I made a judgement call. I decided that I wasn't prepared for Schmoo to see the movie. I talked to her about it in advance yesterday and told her that she could still go to the pizza and cake part at the beginning of the party, but that we were not staying for the movie.

It was a hard decision. There were other parents that chose for their kids to leave at the beginning of the movie too, but Schmoo was the most upset. I wavered internally, but stuck to my guns and as a result endured a huge cry-fest, meltdown on the way and at home. Poor kid. She was so disappointed. We snuggled, we talked, she yelled at me. But I stuck to my guns. I told her that there will be things that she won't be able to do like her other friends. Her mama and papa make decisions about what's right for her. The last 1.5 hours of our evening together were painful. She was miserable and I was exhausted. But in the end, we crawled into bed together and she went to bed calm and content.

It was a good training exercise for me. Just wait until she's a teenager and the reasons for saying no are even more complicated!