There comes a time, I believe, in every parent's life when you have to hurt your child. Of course, not physically, nor on purpose. But for the sake of their health, and well-being. This comes about by the parent knowing things the child does not yet know, and cannot possible be aware of due to their innocence. It then becomes difficult, if not impossible to explain the 'why' to your child - resulting in the famous line: 'Because I'm the mom, that's why'.
We are restricting our daughter's access to one of her friends house because of what we feel are questionable practices in her home. We enjoy this friend, and she is welcome in our home at any time. Our daughter just cannot be over at her house, unless and until we are confident that she will be safe, cared for, and watched over. I'm facing the reality of this decision, and the fact that I'm going to have to talk to this friends mother about it this evening. It should prove an interesting conversation - as generally I like to avoid confrontation. But I suppose this is one of those growing opportunities I have as a parent - the kind where I learn that I have more strength inside of me than I previously thought I did. Or at least I hope that's what it teaches me.
Our little girl is beside herself, and extremely upset. This will be an interesting weekend, and hopefully she'll learn as she grows up and has children of her own - there will be a time when she faces her child and tells her 'Because I'm the mom, that's why!' and anything more than that, cannot be explained.
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