Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Cinderellas and Ugly Stepsisters

My 5 year old tells me no one will let her play with them at recess.
This daughter of mine has such a great attitude and personality, I envy it.
She is by nature very positive... Usually when you give her bad news, she immediately spins it to find a way to continue on with happiness.
Once, when she was 3, she asked her dad how a smoke detector works.  He said, "If there's smoke, it warns us by making a loud noise."  She looked up at her dad and said, "I love loud noises!"
Sure, she is prone to meltdown, gets tired easily... But in general, accepts people for who they are, never judges, and is open and willing to try new things.  This is all more impressive to me, because that is not necessarily how her older sister operates, so she isn't mimicking anyone here!
And no one will play with her? She saw 3 girls playing Cinderella and asked if she could join.  "No, you can't" ....she asked to join boys, more girls... Everyone said no.  It happened again today. My daughter, ever the optimist, made a funny joke: "I know! I'll just say to them, "Hey how about we play Cinderella? I'll do all the work and you can say mean things to me."  I should write this down as her first official stand-up set.
We had a long talk lastnight about this. Really long.
Here's what I came up with...
There are two kinds of people in the world... Cinderellas and Ugly Stepsisters.  Who do you want to be?  Ugly Stepsisters make people feel bad, they don't say thank you, they leave Cinderella out, they don't care about other people, and in the end no one likes them.  Cinderellas are kind even when people are mean to them, even when they are left out and have to eat their dinner all alone, even when they are sad they are kind, and in the end, they find love.
Be kind, even if people aren't nice to you. Don't let other people turn you into an Ugly Stepsister.  Stay a Cinderella.  Now, don't give away your friendship to someone who doesn't deserve it... Give your friendship to those who are deserving.  But... To those who are not?  Be kind.  Don't let them take away your magic.



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