Good Listener

A few days ago Parker dropped some blueberries on the floor. She promptly picked them up and headed over to the trash can to throw them out. I stopped her, telling her that they are fine and she should still eat them. She told me that her teacher, Ms. Lucken, told her that when things fall on the floor they get germs on them and you should always throw them away. On the one hand I appreciated the teacher's explanation and effort to instill some cleanly values into my child. So I said to Parker, "Well, that is true when you are at school or other places where there are lots of people. Because wherever there are lots of people, there are lots of germs". But here at home it's just our family so you can eat things that fall on the floor." I didn't want to go into more detail....like if it's an m'n'm it's okay to pick it off the floor and pop it in your mouth, but if it's a spoonful of lasagna forget about it. I tried to keep it simple.

So yesterday I asked Parker how her Valentine party was at school. "What did you guys eat?" I asked, curious to see how much sugar she'd already ingested for the day and if she'd still be hungry for lunch. She said something like this,
"Well, it was fun. I had a really good time handing out Valentines to all my friends. And we got a cookie but I dropped mine on the floor so I threw it away. I was really disappointed because the teacher said we could only have one and I really wanted to eat it."

My first thought was, "Wow, she just used the word "disappointed".... impressive!"
Next I felt so bad that I didn't go into further detail about when you should throw food away (depending on the type of food and how long it's been on the floor, how dirty the floor is, etc) and when you shouldn't. I pictured Parker sitting at the table watching all her classmates eat their cookies. She didn't even ask the teacher for another cookie. I felt so proud of her for exhibiting so much self control and trying to do the right thing. Such a good girl!