Put a Band-Aid on It

I had to sneak a Band-Aid this morning (that'll teach me to walk to CVS in my gym flip-flops!). The reason I had to sneak it? Sadie was sitting right there, and if she saw ME with a Band-Aid (however genuinely I needed one), she would want a Band-Aid too (despite not actually needing one at all).

Sadie has a Band-Aid fixation. She fell down and scraped her knee a few months ago. It was definitely a Band-Aid owie. But despite the fact that her wound healed, Sadie insisted on wearing a Band-Aid over that spot for weeks afterward (and by "insisted," I mean that she was a screaming, hysterical mess after any bath where her Band-Aid happened to fall off).

She has driven both Dean and me crazy with this fixation. She wants a Band-Aid any time she falls down (whether she needs one or not), as well as any time her feelings are hurt or she's feeling sad, frustrated, or angry. Dean and I will try to reason with her endlessly over this, "Sadie, you do NOT need a Band-Aid for that!"

But you know what? A Band-Aid pretty much fixes anything for Sadie right now. I'm not always going to be able to solve life's upsets, hurt feelings, and bad moods as easily for her. So why are we begrudging her the Band-Aids? In a very fleeting amount of time, it's going to take a whole lot more than a Band-Aid. And there will come a day where something will happen that I just can't fix for her. Already, Ella has squabbles with her little boyfriend that drive her to tears, and there's no way she's going to accept a Band-Aid from me as a "fix."

So right now, if Sadie wants a Band-Aid, she'll get a Band-Aid. Someday, I'll look back fondly on a time when it was so easy for me to step in and take the sting out of the world for her. If only a simple Band-Aid held such magical properties for the rest of us.