Madelyn has reached the age when she's starting to get her feelings hurt by her friends. "Mark didn't want to play with me." "Katie called me stupid." "Toby said my shoes were ugly." She'll cry big, sad tears and collapse into my arms with genuine hurt and defeat. I try my best to be compassionate and soothe her and encourage her to be confident in who she is and not let others' hurtful words dictate how she thinks about herself or feels about herself.
I was reminded this week that this is much easier said than done. Some of you know that things at my place of employment have been tense to say the least the last several months. I have found myself for the first time in my professional career in the crosshairs of Human Resources regarding the non-profit organization that I am starting. My employer feels that there is a conflict of interest between what I do at my current job and what I am endeavoring to do through The Family Room. This, of course, is preposterous and literally elicits laughs from everyone I tell, but they have given me a "cease and desist" ultimatum and have pulled me into several disciplinary meetings in which I have been treated more like a criminal on trial than the exemplary employee that I have proven to be over the last 8 years. The thing is, I know who I am and that I have done nothing to deserve punitive action. But hearing others say untruthful, negative things about you truly is hurtful regardless of how much your brain knows there is no merit. And I'm 34 years old with a (mostly) mature brain and decades of life experience. How much more painful and confusing must this feel to my 5 year old girl?
Thank God we have the unconditional love of our boys to buoy our spirits and make us laugh.
