How My 7-Year-old Daughter Traded Money for My Emotions

This is “My” time to recharge myself. The entire house is aware of it and they are all instructed to reach out to me only for things that can’t wait [say, for example, a life-threatening emergency].

Well, I am on Medium with my favorite company, Coffee. A Killer Combination and I am also well aware of being glued to this spot for a bit longer.

My daughter, being my kid loves to challenge the improbable. And she knows the easy way to grab my attention is to offer me help with the awaiting chores.

Sometimes when the errand takes a considerable effort, I reward her with a little money for her piggy bank.

Also, in our house, I treat any help offered as a Casualty too. Because it is a rare occurrence and a no-brainer to skip it.

So, I accept her offer and ask her to clean up the messy room. And she announces her little surprise.

She tells me, “Mommy, this time I don’t want money. Instead, can you please play with me?!” in a praying pose with palms facing each other and a cute sad face.

I experience a whirlwind of emotions and before I try to recognize them one by one, I am soaking wet in mom’s guilt.

My mind is figuring out a label for me as a perfect add-on to the situation, I put myself in. “When did I become this parent?” was only the starting line.

And that is when I spot her sneaky smile as she repeats it again.

Oh, so the game plan was to get me out of that spot and break the “Me” time routine. Just for fun! Believe me, she was very close to accomplishing it.

Little did she know, I was going to make a story about this too on Medium.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!!!

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Previously Published on medium

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