Sometimes…your kids just drive you nuts.

I love my daughter with every ounce of my being. I want to be with her 24/7, and I actually cried when she used to go to preschool. I still do when her grandparents take her for an overnight once in a while. I know that many people think this is crazy, and maybe I’m weird. Maybe it was the whole experience with her in the hospital for the first three months of her life when she was a premature baby. Maybe I’m just a sentimental fool. Whatever reason, for 23 hours of the day (or, I suppose, 13 of the 14 hours she is awake) I simply feel as if I must be with her.

Then there is that 24^th hour.

The other day, we were leaving my parents house, and my daughter simply didn’t want to leave. We understood that and empathized with her. We told her we would come back next weekend (which we will), and that she will even get to spend the night (I added with a gulp) next time. That didn’t work. She was emotional and distraught, and she took to calling us “stupid monsters.” This, of course, made us both laugh really hard inside, though we tried valiantly to not laugh at her emotions. It would have hurt her feelings even more.

Then, she started the chanting.

All the way home, she cried, “You are stupid! You are stupid!” It was funny too, at first, and we tried to ignore it, but she just continued for ten minutes. (It’s about a forty minute drive.) So then we turned the radio up a bit, hoping she’d start singing along. It’s one of her favorite things, after all.

No dice. In fact, she started chanting louder.

Suddenly, I had a plan. “Let’s chant with her,” I told my husband, “but with silly words.”

He grinned and followed my lead as we chanted, “You are fuzzy!” and “You are beautiful!”

She was so confused! She faltered, altering between chanting and asking, “What is wrong with you guys? What are you guys doing?”

Finally, when we chanted, “We really love you!” she just giggled and stopped. The next thing she asked was a random question about playing with her turtle when we got home.

So, we didn’t really whine back—not really. But we turned something annoying and not-so-nice into a fun family gigglefest. I only wish we’d thought of it sooner.