Find all of my 31 Moments of Motherhood posts here.
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[Lights come up on a woman holding a closed Country Crock container. A toddler bed with a purple flowered quilt on top sits to one side.]
Me
I came home tonight and our babysitter handed me this Country Crock container.
[Pause]
What’s inside?
[Opens container and takes out a large chunk of hair.]
Me
Yep. My dear daughter took a pair of scissors, hacked off a chunk of her hair, and hid it in this container.
Am I shocked? Yes.
Devastated? Kind of.
Confused? Definitely.
What could have possibly made her think that cutting her hair would be a good idea? I just don’t get it.
[She takes the piece of hair, puts it back into the container, and walks over to sit down on the edge of the toddler bed.]
Me
I went upstairs and sat by her bed while she slept to check out the damage. She was sleeping peacefully despite her missing chunk of hair, but it didn’t make the churning in the pit of my stomach go away.
I know…I know…hair grows back, but I think this unsettled feeling is about something bigger than hair.
I can teach her what good choices look like and point her in the right direction, but I can’t make every decision for her. She has to make her own choices – today, it’s a chunk of hair, but someday, those choices will be more…significant. And when she makes other “not-so-good choices”, I have to decide to be a mom that speaks both truth and forgiveness.
[Pause]
Tomorrow morning, she will wake up and we will get her a hair appointment to even up her hair. I will make sure that she knows that scissors are only for paper, but I will also give her a giant hug. And I will remember this moment the next time she makes a “not-so-good choice”, and be reminded of the balancing act that it takes to parent our children well.
[She looks down at the Country Crock container contemplatively as the lights go down.]
