Thanks, Mom

My girl, Lily

The other day I truly had a challenging, yet rewarding, mothering day. Canyon went to spend the afternoon at a friend’s house and the babies were taking a nap and so it was just Lily and I. The plan for the day was for her to practice the piano and then I would download a “Hannah Montana” episode for her to watch…the idea that if she practiced well—she would get to watch her show (some people, I think, call it bribery—I prefer to call it motivation). She happened to be learning a more difficult song than she’s had to play before—where both hands are doing different things and even, perhaps, contrary to each other. It reminds me of the quote from Jeeves & Wooster “Well I don’t see what the big deal is [playing piano], it’s just one had doing one thing and the other doing something else…why I do that with my knife and fork while I’m eating.” Anyway, she had a melt down, “I can’t do it, it’s too hard…” and so on. Any of you who have children with extreme sensibilities will understand the difficulty of this situation…because no matter what you say or do…you’re wrong. So, no matter what I said or did…I was wrong.
I took a deep breath and told her that I would be cleaning the kitchen and that when she was ready for my help (and I mean accepting it without loud sighs, rolling eyes, & moaning), then I would be happy to help her. I worked on the kitchen while she worked out the screaming, grunting, crying, and complaining. Eventually she said, in a relatively calm voice, “I’m ready for your help now.” We started with a review of all the notes, and worked on the piece one hand at a time, and then worked on two hands together, all the while counting and I have to say, hopefully without too much confidence, I WAS GOOD. I deserved the gold star of the day because I was SO PATIENT. I’m confident that anyone else, and I mean anyone would have cracked. In fact, the government should use Lily as an interrogator…she would get people to start spouting facts in about two minutes with the “practice piano routine.” She finally got the song, watched “Hannah Montana” and then went outside to play. A while later…and here’s the trophy…she came and gave me a hug and thanked me. She actually thanked me. So I guess this is why I do it.