The feather

I arrive at the school just in time to get my sweet little Mina. Only today, not so sweet. There was something wrong, terribly wrong. I meet her on the sidewalk just outside the building, and asked her how her day was. That was it. She bursts into tears. Tears is an understatement, it was absolute hysteria. So much so that I had no idea what she was saying. (and I have been translating for these kids for years now)

I tried comforting her right there on the sidewalk, but it wasn't working. My Motherly magic was failing me and I was getting nervous. Finally, I hear "she has my feather." So now, I have words but not the first clue what she was talking about. "What feather?" "Mommy, I found a feather on the playground and Amber took it." I asked her plainly, "did she just take it away from you?" It turns out, Mina was showing her friend the feather and she decided to keep it as her own. (man, a coffee cup flashback) Well Mina was beside herself. I tried to explain that perhaps Amber didn't have any feathers to find at her house. ( like she lived on Mars or something) I also reminded her of all the ones she found over the summer. That had absolutely no impact either. Mina looked at me like "woman, are you NOT hearing what I'm saying to you?" Obviously she wanted THAT feather and no other.

Now, in the car she was a bit side tracked with Salena. Thank goodness. We were off to have fun for the rest of the afternoon. I think the whole feather thing is behind us, but I was wrong. How incredibly foolish of me. Really, what was I thinking? From the back seat Mina makes the announcement that she no longer knows Amber. That she made it very clear to her that she could expect to no longer have any help on the swings. Along with leaving her friend that she no longer knew to fend for herself on the swings, she told us that her hair was in an ugly looking bun.(she then admitted that her hair was actually down) Man, she was raggin' on the chicks hair. What is THAT? To top the whole thing off she says "Mommy, you know that feathers die, Amber's feather is going to DIIIEEEEE!!!!" (I think she was thinking they were like flowers) The tone in her voice was incredible, like she had a forked tongue. I had to laugh. Although, not out loud of course because I was getting ready scold her. It was so unlike her to be so "not nice" that I found it a bit humorous. I did explain that, although it didn't seem fair her feather wasn't returned, it wasn't nice to speak that way about someone. She agreed. However, I do see that in the future I'm going to have to keep her little fangs filed.

How did she now to cut on the little girls hair? Are we born knowing that the hair is the point of attack/target for any girl? Boys use their hands and girls use their mouths. I suppose that is just the law of the jungle.


"The world is a playground, and life is pushing my swing"

-Natalie Kocsis