Friday, January 13, 2012

Mommy, Do You Own Me?

My daughter asked a profound and random question yesterday morning: "Do you own me?"
She was surprised with my answer, "no, you own yourself." I think I blew her mind a little.

I didn't anticipate getting this deep at age 6, but here we are!

The idea of parents owning children conversation started again today, but instead of coming in the form of a question, I got a heated accusation.  As in, you can't tell me what to do...you don't own me.  Woah.  Talk about sass. How do I gracefully respond?

Little one, it's true...I can't buy you or sell you.  You're not property. I keep you here because you are a gift from God to our family and I love you.  There's nothing you can do to change how much I love you.  However, owning yourself bears responsibility. You are responsible for your own behavior and choices, to the extent of your knowledge and awareness up to this point.  And every behavior and choice has a consequence.  My job is to love, guide, protect, and instruct you and your job is to trust me until you're old enough to be on your own.