The worst thing Madeline has ever done
Yesterday Madeline did the worst thing she ever did before: she broke her retainer. The way it happened apparently was that she left in the car— not in its case—just sitting on the seat. Somehow it fell near the door, and when she was getting out of the car she closed the door on it.
My first instinct was to give her a natural consequence for her action. So I was going to tell her she had to keep wearing it anyway. I was like, “Go find your glue stick and put it back together and put it in your mouth.” But on second thought I thought maybe it would fall apart in her mouth and she could choke and die in her sleep.
So instead I’m going to find a sweat shop somewhere and put her to work so she can earn the money to pay for a new retainer.
Obviously Madeline was really upset about what she had done and she was really sorry about it. She was crying those uncontrollable little sobs that kids get sometimes. Madeline has a strong sense of right and wrong, and she loves following rules. She hates getting in trouble, and she has a burgeoning guilt complex. This was way worse than the whole gymnastics thing. So I consoled her, told her it was going to be ok, but also let her feel the weight of what she did. I told her I knew it was an accident, but she was being careless, the retainer costs a lot of money, and she and I were going to have to call the orthodontist and explain what happened.
But here’s the funny part: after I was done consoling Madeline, and she went and got ready for bed, I had to go and console Mariana. Because Mariana was just upset as Madeline was. I found her in bed crying uncontrollably just like Madeline was. It’s not that Mariana had any responsibility with the broken retainer, or that she has a guilt complex, or cares at all about the straightness of Madeline’s teeth. But I swear these two girls are like Siamese twins sometimes. When one feels pain, the other feels it just as much. Madeline was feeling terribly upset, so Mariana was feeling terribly upset. So I felt impelled to explain everything to Mariana about the retainer that I had just explained to Madeline.
They both went to bed with tears in their eyes.
