I know that one of my jobs as a parent is to teach her how to deal with disappointment – but not like this; this isn’t what I had in mind.

We should be working on learning how to gracefully accept that she gets what she gets for dinner, and not necessarily a doughnut.

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We should be working on accepting the fact that she’s not getting a pony for her birthday.

We should be working on understanding that all fun activities end eventually, and when the playdate is over, we need to gracefully go home.

Instead, we had to cancel our vacation last minute because I came down with influenza. She was so excited about our trip to Alaska, but I was far too sick to take her anywhere.

I sat down in her kid-sized green and white polka-dot easy chair and pulled her into my lap. “I have some bad news,” I said, “we can’t go to Alaska tomorrow because Mommy is sick.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” she repeated several times, and then she stopped. “It’s okay, Mommy. I know sometimes we can’t do things when you get sick.” She rested her head on my shoulder a bit, then ran out to the living room to play as if nothing had happened.

That hurt.

It hurts the way she has normalized my illnesses, Mommy being sick is just part of her life. Stupid cancer keeps messing with me, even when it’s not cancer.

But as much as it hurts, I’m proud of her, too.

Meanwhile, she still wants a doughnut.

And this time, she got one.

Judy Schwartz Haley

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