The Princess turned 6 years old recently. She's an amazing daughter in every way. Sometimes amazingly difficult, hehe. But always amazing.
A few weeks ago she started being actively, sneakily mean to the cats. Like throwing a toy at them and then denying it, or swatting them for turning away when she tries to pet them. Which I guess makes sense in 6-year-old logic. Or deliberately stomping her foot next to them as she passed by to startle them away.
I had a feeling it was jealousy, but there didn't seem to be much I could do about it. I began to get very upset and a couple of times she went off and cried after I yelled at her. Then one evening she said: "Mommy, if I ran away would you look for me?"
I wasn't sure what to make of that, but I replied, "Yes, of course! But I really hope you never run away because I'd be so super sad."
"But how would you look for me?" she asked. "You have to take care of the cats."
Light Bulb.
I explained to her that there is no way I would ever not look for her or her brothers because of pets; I can get other people to take care of the cats if I have to, and they are very special but they aren't my kids, and my first responsibility is to her and her brothers, and if one of them was lost I would never stop looking until they were found.
I've been trying to make an effort to spend at least a little time reading and writing with her in the evenings now, at least the evenings when we're home. She's being nicer to the cats. I think she still gets annoyed that Smidge curls up on my twin-sized mattress with me at night, because she isn't allowed to sleep with me any more. She's not ready to accept my explanation that there is room on the bed (not really, but I can't reason with a cat) for an 8-pound cat and not for a 50-pound child. Some things will take time, I suppose. She still occasionally cries about not having a kitten, and she cried last night at my sister's house because my sister's kittens have grown up and don't like her any more (of course in reality they didn't like being manhandled any better when they were little, but they couldn't escape as effectively hehe). She still wants a pet that belongs only to her, that will fawn over her and sleep with her and follow her everywhere and let her squeeze and snuggle and love it to her heart's content. What she needs, in reality, is a fluffy dog. And I wish I could give her that, but I can't.
There is just nowhere nearly enough of me to go around, these days.
