Monday, April 22, 2019

It’s not about the toothbrush

The time came to change the toothbrushes, and my son was not having it.

It would have been easy to brush off his objections, and just toss the toothbrush and tell him to stop crying.

It would have been easy to tell him he could keep the toothbrush, to avoid the crying.

Instead, I sat with him while he cried. I acknowledged that he was very sad about giving up his toothbrush, while holding the limit that it was time to change the toothbrush and that he couldn’t keep the toothbrush, even if he didn’t use it anymore.

In the end, when the crying slowed, he asked me if I was going to live forever.

It’s not about the toothbrush.


He wanted to take some pictures of his toothbrush so he could remember it. We found some really cool toothbrushes that light up and he was happy with that. But more importantly, he got to learn that not only do things change, but that things can change and he will still be ok, that he can say goodbye to the things that he loves, even if it hurts, that he can be sad and it won’t last forever.

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