Sunday Aaron had a rather sad evening. During the day he had snuck into the fridge and eaten all of our parmesan cheese. You have to know that we use that stuff for pasta EVERY DINNER and it's an essential item in our house. When we went to grab it from the fridge, it was gone. We figured out what had happened.
I'm a big believer in learning from natural consequences, and it seemed very logical to me that if your eat your cheese that goes on your pasta before the meal, then you don't have it when it's time to eat your meal. I was able to find a small crust of hard cheese that we could grate onto our pasta for the rest of the family, but since Aaron had already eaten his cheese, he was done for the night.
He was NOT happy with not having cheese to eat, and he let us know with lots of crying and yelling "accidenti!" which is Italian for "dang it!"
I let him know that I too was very sad about his choice and he could choose to cry but we were only going to eat during dinner time and if he chose not to eat while we were eating, then he was choosing not to eat his dinner. Well, he cried and yelled a lot. And despite several warnings, did not eat his dinner.
He was SO UPSET and inside I felt very badly for him. Sometimes it's hard for me to pull out the tough love, but loving isn't taking away our problems, it's supporting and helping during them.
So as Aaron was going to bed, I did my best to cuddle him and help him understand how much I love him. I pray individually with each of my kids when I put them to bed, and this was Aaron's prayer:
"Accidenti, accidenti, accidenti! (Caro Padre Celeste)
Accidenti, accidenti! Accidenti, accidenti, accidenti! Accidenti! Accidenti, accidenti, accidenti, accidenti! Accidenti, accidenti! Accidenti! Accidenti, accidenti!
Nel nome di Gesù Cristo, Amen."
Translation:
"Dang it, dang it, dang it! (Dear Heavenly Father)
Dang it, dang it! Dang it, dang it, dang it! Dang it!! Dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it! Dang it, dang it! Dang it! Dang it, dang it!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
I felt bad for Aaron, but I also smiled within myself. Haven't you ever wanted to say a prayer like that at least once in your life?
I was also grateful that he could find what I considered a healthy way to express himself since one of Aaron's challenges in life so far has been to express how he feels. I was grateful that he could do so.
