I want DADDY!
PinkGirl watched a Little House on the Prairie episode for the first time last night. I thought: heartwarming, good life lessons, role models - all that stuff.
But I forgot. Tears. There are always tears on that show. This particular episode built up to a heartrending scene involving a dad, unconscious after surgery and his daughter who comes into the room already in tears, sits on the side of her father’s bed and begs him to live (through increasing tears). WHAT was I thinking? I’M even crying! PinkGirl is sitting on my lap and I’m all teary eyed and she says, in this broken little voice, “it’s too . . . hard . . . to not cry when it’s so sad mommy.” I said, “Look at mommy’s eyes honey.” She turned her little face up to me and, seeing the tears in my eyes, stopped holding back. Tears. LOTS of tears. And here’s what I TOTALLY didn’t think of: “I want DADDY!”
Okay. Daddy is in Virginia. Till tomorrow. Night. Late. After bedtime.
I’m in big trouble. So I say, “Honey, do you want to call daddy?” “no. I WANT daddy.”
Like I said, BIG trouble. Don’t forget, there are tears. LOTS of tears.
I hold her, rock her and finally convince her to call daddy. Poor daddy. He was not expecting this! He’s at dinner at a friend’s house in Virginia. They have an 18 month old daughter, so it didn’t bother them at all that he had to break away THREE times (in less than an hour) to talk to PinkGirl on the phone. After the third phone call and still crying, I have a idea! “PinkGirl honey, do you want to sleep on daddy’s side of mommy and daddy’s bed? His pillow will smell like daddy.” “okay.”
So I surround her with all the pillows I can find that smell like daddy and snuggle up next to her to rub her back while she tries to calm down and go to sleep. “mommy?” “yes honey?” “when you snuggle close, I can’t smell daddy, I only smell you.”
So I retreat to safe distance and within 5 minutes, she’s out for the night.
Now I’m afraid of Little House on the Prairie.
