I will never sing again

This evening during dinner prep time Clair was very mad at me because I wouldn't let her watch Peppa Pig or play a device. She thinks she should do this at every meal prep and I don't want that to be a given or her prime memory of childhood. I said No. She was not happy.

I tried to woo her to come up to the counter and listen to her toddler music and keep me company by drawing or something while i cooked. We can have a very nice evening when she does this. She loves to sing to her music!

Clair decided to be stubborn. When I turned the music on and started singing, she announced she will "Never sing again.Ever."

i suggested to her that perhaps kids sometimes make decisions like this that are not the best and maybe need to change.

3 songs in her favorite song comes on. The song is Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink. She loves this song. They sang it at school last year and it talks about love, it is a song that just makes Clair happy. We often sing it together for one another.

So I start singing away, waiting for her to join. I'm chopping sweet potatoes. Next thing I know Clair is crying, loudly, sobbing with pure sadness into a pillow on the couch. I stop what I'm doing, go over, pick her up and ask what's wrong. She's still sobbing uncontrollably. "I want to sing my favorite song, but i can't ever sing again."

I try to explain that she has the power to change her mind and cancel out that promise. I console her and keep singing to her, hoping to woo her into song with me. That doesn't work, but I ask her to remind me the hand movements that go with the song. At the very end she starts in. I can see she's getting into it, but the song ends. Here come the tears, again. "I didn't get to sing my favorite song and now it's over!" .... tears, tears, tears....

I explain again, this decision was hers and can easily be undone. It's not permanent. She can sing and love music and she will.

She is so sad that her favorite song is over.

Fast forward about 5 minutes, and I end up buying her favorite song on itunes so I can play it over and over. We sing through almost the whole dinner prep. She is smiling. She is happy. She is my Clair bear.

I Am A Sucker!

I love this girl so much. She is so full of emotion, thought and drama. She is going to be some force in this world as she spreads her wings to fly!