Cherry Sticker

One day after school, my 6 year old daughter E and 5 year old son C came home with a ton of stickers. It was a ridiculous amount and apparently they earned it in the after-school program they were in by running laps. The helpers ended up giving the kids who ran laps stickers to motivate them. C was super motivated and earned stickers for E as well.

They ended up pooling the stickers together and splitting them up when they got home. It was a great moment that would eventually cause problems after dinner. When we got all showered up, it was time to do a calm activity to settle down for bed. It was anything but calm from then on.

E was looking for her cherry sticker and of course that was the one we could not find. She went ballistic. It was hard to calm her down and she was screaming and sobbing over the cherry sticker. Of course those moments aren’t about the sticker and really about just feeling big feelings (and being overtired most likely).

I tried to remind E that it was just a sticker and it was fine to be sad, but she could get another one eventually (or eventually just forget about it like she does with unimportant things she gets). It did not work and my wife ended up whisking them away for an early bedtime. We had to hit the reset button by doing that and in the future, I’ll make sure we keep eyes on those pesky cherry stickers.