My oldest daughter has an aversion to change. When I replaced the old toaster with one that actually browns the bread, Lily begged me to keep the old toaster. (I threw it out discretely.) When we told her that we were replacing her old, drafty bedroom windows with New! Warm! White! windows, Lily started crying. She has told us time and time again that we are never moving away from this house, the only house she has ever lived in.
So I knew that when I moved her bookshelf out of her closet, she would not like it. I mentioned moving the shelf one day, and right away she told me NO. What’s a mother to do? Why, rearrange her room while she’s at school, of course! I put her pink lamp on top, and some favorite toys, thinking it would be easier for her to play with them on top of the bookshelf. But when she came home and saw her room, she burst into tears and insisted on putting everything back where it was. I told her I would, in a few days.
A few days turned into a couple of weeks. Then her birthday came, and she received a new Rapunzel tower with a Rapunzel doll and a Flynn Rider doll. I placed it on top of the bookshelf…
And then the next morning Lily didn’t want to go to school because she was having too much fun, playing in her room!
Ah, Lily.
