Parenting Lesson Learned

One thing we learned early on about Therese’s temperment is that she does not like surprises. Sometimes this has slipped our minds and we fall short in preparing her for any major events that are about to take place in our home. Let’s take for instance Holloween. We had entertained the idea of taking her trick-or-treating to a few houses but never really firmly decided on it. So when the first trick-or-treaters arrived at our door, Therese was instantly shocked that strange kids were coming to her home and taking her candy.

It was all downhill from there.

The meltdown had set in. No explanation would suffice. There would be no costume dressing, no trick-or-treating. She would have nothing to do with a silly holiday involving children stealing each others candy. Lesson learned.

The bright side is that a trip to Dunkin’ Dounuts following All Saints Day mass helped raise her spirits (no pun intended). Sugar does indeed triumph in the end.