Respect

My girl is good. I really am not too scared about her letting people push her around. She stands up for herself, kindly but firmly. We've been discussing respect in relationships a LOT these days. Given all that is happening with Eli, we are continually talking about how mutual respect is mandatory in a relationship and nothing less than that is acceptable. I've been doing my best to drill into the kids' heads that the reason I will not listen to them when they are raising their voices at me is because if I did, I would be teaching them that it's OK to accept that, as long as you love someone.

Fast forward to last night. Maddux is running around with a few friends she met last month. They are getting along great; everyone is being kind and playing very nicely. At one point I see the boy accidentally run into Maddux and she fell down. I'm not sure if he even noticed it, but she was knocked off of her feet. She sat there stunned for a minute, and when he didn't do anything about it, she said (in a firm voice), "HEY! You knocked me down. And it hurt." He then apologized and they continued playing.

I told her (and Eli) later how proud I was of her for staying calm, and for letting her friend know that it was not OK for him to knock her down and not do anything about it. It was the coolest exchange to see....my girl can certainly take care of herself!