Power Over Sleepover

Our daughter had the first sleep over last night.

We were talking about making arrangement for our up-coming trip to NY. So Yiga asked Sienna when she walked inside the room if she liked to do the sleepover sometime. It was an "yes" and "right now." We were relieved by her attitude which played right into our plan. Yet, we were a bit reluctant to let her test out right away, as the night was late already. I asked her if there are any conditions that we could negociate in order for her not to go. I gave a couple of options, including getting her the top item on her wish list, Barbie's Ballerina Sisters. No, she didn't care. So we let her go.

My thinking is parents have such power over a child, we really need to be careful not over using it. If we insisted, she would not have a chance to go. At the same time, parents could have so many opportunities to empower the child. Tonight, we gave her the option to choose one thing (sleepover) over a favoriate toy. She got what she wanted more and not without a cost of her own.

I tried to enjoy my freedom by screaming out loud without worrying about waking her up. But I would rather keep her around forever.