Rememberings...

As I encounter new situations with my children, I'm reminded of similar situations occurring when I was young. One's that I vowed I would handle differently than they were handled way back when. Such a memory came to mind a few minutes ago. When I was in 5th grade I had a little clique of friends. 5 of us to be exact. I especially enjoyed this group of girls. There was a girl not involved in this clique that I also enjoyed hanging out with. We had a lot in common, and also took dance together. One afternoon this girls parents invited me to go to a nearby lake with them. I was excited to go. When we arrived I noticed there were a lot of familiar faces around. If I remember correctly there was a Young Single Adult activity or something like that taking place so a lot of people from our ward happened to be in the vicinity. One of those people was one of the girls in my little clique. I remember thinking how great it was to have 2 really good friends in one place at the same time coincidentally. Both girls knew each other so I figured it was a non-issue for all 3 of us to hang out. After a little while the girl I came with kind of disappeared. I figured she went to the bathroom or something. Pretty soon I heard her mom calling me over. She kind of put me in a weird spot with the conversation that took place. She told me she realized I was really good friends with this other girl, but I had come with her daughter. Therefore I needed to pay attention only to her daughter and enjoy my time with just her. I obviously did as I was asked. I had never intended to leave this girl out. I remember thinking how I would never call out a child like that just to avoid my child's feelings being hurt. It seemed odd to me that she did that. My mom would probably just have found a way for all 3 of us to enjoy the day. Hmmmm. Today I re-learned to never say never. Kennedy has a friend over. Jack wanted to have his very best friend over, so we invited her too. I'm on the computer trying to do some stuff for Shawn and I hear this conversation taking place:
Jack (to his friend): "Do you want to play house with me?"
Friend: "No, I'm playing with the girls right now."
Jack: "But I like girl stuff! Do you want to play house?"
This went on for like 5 minutes. I just listened and hoped it would work itself out. Maybe all 4 could just play together? I was trying not to be my friends mom by intervening. Then they all went upstairs. Pretty soon I heard tears. Jack was being mean to his friend, Kennedy was yelling at Jack, so both were crying. I went up and explained to them all that Jack was only angry because he was so excited to play with his friend and Kennedy kind of took her over. I said what I once vowed never to say. "Kennedy why don't you go play something with your friend, and Jack, you and your friend can go downstairs and play house. Let's all play with the friend we were meant to play with today, okay?" Everyone seemed fine with that proposal. So, here I sit now listening to Jack say "Honey, did you remember to change the baby?" And his friend answering "I can't find the baby." Lovely. Peace at last. I guess when it's your own child with hurt feelings you do whatever you can to make it right. My 5th grade mentality didn't fully understand that. Now it does. Now it does.