Don’t Fall in the Trap

My baby girl just cried down my back. I had been trying to figure out why the girls were fighting and Kaitlyn’s truth spilled out. She feels left behind. I say her truth because it isn’t THE truth. The plain old truth is that she is special and can do things others can’t do. We are not all the same.

This all started last week when I signed Lauren up for a cheer and tumbling class. Since the beginning of summer, that child has been obsessed with hand stands and cartwheels. She now does a cartwheel whenever she has the chance and has gotten better. I signed her up for the class so she can learn from someone other than friends and Youtube.

This picture was in May when Lauren was perfecting her hand stand. I love seeing how focused she is!

Kaitlyn did not want to do the class until we pulled up to the building on Monday. Suddenly she was all about tumbling. There was still an opening so I signed her up for the rest of the 6 week course. She wasn’t dressed for it then, so she missed the first class. Since then her sister had been trying to practice with her, and that is what they were doing when I heard the yelling.

When Baby K broke down and told me the other girls in the class can do cartwheels and she is behind, it broke my heart. I held her while she cried but told her she has to do what she can. She needs to practice what she can do and learn the rest in class.

After we talked, I told Lauren why Kaitlyn was struggling. She said, “No, only 2 or 3 of the girls can do cartwheels, and we mess up too.” Kaitlyn had chosen that her truth was that she was behind and all of the other girls were way ahead of her. The actual truth was the opposite. She was making herself miserable because of a lie.

This is them doing a candlestick. Excuse the mess that is Lauren’s room. (Yes, that is a tent in the corner of the room from 2 months ago.)

Isn’t it funny how we see what we want to see? “Everybody else has it all together.” “No one else struggles with cleaning their house.” “My friends wouldn’t understand how I feel and they would think I am weird if I shared this.” (I am glad I have wonderfully flawed friends and never feel judged by them. They are priceless!)

All we can do is do what we can. No pretense. No posturing. No faking. You be you and I will be me. Doesn’t that sound so much better than each of us feeling sorry for ourselves for what we cannot do? We should never assume that we are the only ones because we aren’t. When we believe that lie, we are only holding ourselves back.

Let’s avoid that pit and do the best forward roll we can!

Linking with Holley Gerth