Sunday, January 5, 2014

Chain of Command

Immediately after Raphaela almost died from an anaphylactic reaction to the simple surgery of stitches on her chin two months ago, a new imaginary friend joined the ranks, the one she calls "Ach." [brother in Hebrew]  Since Ach seemed to help Raphaela survive both the physical trauma and the emotional earthquake of the event, I accepted him into the family.

Several times a day, I hear, "Ach taught me how to do this." "Ach says it's time to eat something." "Ach is coming to Gan with me today." Etc.

This past Shabbat, Raphaela said to me, "From now on, I am not going to listen to you, I am going to listen to Ach instead."

I got down to her eye level, and in a totally calm and quiet voice said the following:  "Ach is wonderful, but in this house I am Mommy and I am the boss.  You can accept my authority and keep Ach, or you can find another Mommy."

Raphaela seemed shocked, and after yelling at me for hurting "Ach's feelings," she apologized and behaved beautifully for the rest of the weekend.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

great response from you.

Bee said...

Really enjoying reading your blog since discovering it recently! Thank you for writing here.