On Thursdays, my daughter gets together with her cousins after school. They play, eat snacks, and generally enjoy each other’s company.
Today, I showed up, and they were dressed up as knights. I was ready to take my daughter home.
“But we barely got to play!” she said.
“I can give you fifteen minutes,” I said. My daughter wasn’t buying and burst into tears. My daughter and I drove home with her cousins, looking away as though in the presence of a gruesome car wreck.
“If I could,” I said, “I would give you a stop card right now. I give star cards for reflecting, thinking, or caring. I give stop cards for ingratitude.”
By the time we got home, she had calmed down. I told her I loved her and asked what she would do next time if given the option to only play fifteen minutes when she wanted to play thirty.
“Say, ‘Okay.'” she said.
I hope it sticks.
Learning Together 