Bummer for You

So....our Love and Logic parenting took a turn for the worst a while back when we started getting a little sarcastic in our intended empathy when the kids would make a mistake. Rather than saying "how sad" with loads of empathy, we would say, "what a bummer for you". It began with empathy, but apparently I had lost my empathetic edge because I started overhearing our kids sarcastically saying "bummer for you" when they were trying to make eachother cry. So...it continued as a joke with some different groups of friends. My best friends from Colorado traveled this summer to Portland and there were some remarkable moments to apply a sarcastic "bummer for you" tone to a sad moment for us (or actually - mostly TO eachother ABOUT other people we didn't know stuck in traffic and such....real holy, redemptive moments, if you will). Even in Mozambique, a poor fellow traveler got stuck with horrible diarrhea and after my story about the kids, the group just said to her , "bummer for you".

Anyhow, Adelaine lived it up this last week as she decided to not listen to several warnings and disciplines to sneakily eating candy. Because she knew she wasn't supposed to eat candy without asking (but apparently remembered something resembling candy in my purse) she downed 8-10 orange Vitamin C lozenges. The Vitamin C isn't a big deal as it is either absorbed in the body to do a little extra swine flu protection or released back into pee. However, the fact that they were sugar free lozenges (with the lovely clause of "may cause diarrhea"), really "bit her in the butt". I called Poison Control (as we are BFFs) and they told me exactly what would happen and it is exactly what did happen: She threw up some ripe Orange (in flavor, color and smell) loveliness all over me which turned into family bath time (where I'd like to note she told me I looked just like the Little Mermaid)....and she had some serious poop explosions. But, then she was fine. I wish she was little older for the "bummer for you" to really have a lasting effect as she was asking for candy bright and early the next morning. However, the true moral of the story was for me: keeping vitamin C in my purse and not being aware of my daughter digging in my purse was a needed bit of humility and awareness to keep me on my toes (thankfully my sleeping pills don't taste like candy or reside in my purse). However, my SEVERE gag reflex to the smell of orange (and the risidual vision of Adam using our steam cleaner on the carpet at midnight) reminds me that it is in fact mostly a "bummer for me".