The following question is not going to be for most people.
In fact, odds are strong that readers will be unable to answer such a question
unless their name is something like Zachary, William, Joshua, or maybe even
Bethany. Just not my Bethany.
The question is whether or not parents planned for their
child to use a nickname as their preferred form of identification. Weird
question, I know. In the case of our daughter, we always intended to call her
both Ellie and Eleanor. Our reasoning being that Ellie is just fine for most
situations. However, we choose to use Eleanor when needed to be more formal.
You know, like if our daughter becomes President or the CEO of a Fortune 500
company.
I will say that throughout her life, I've found myself using
Ellie most of the time. In fact, I'm partially ashamed to say it but I've
mostly reserved Eleanor for when she's in trouble. Well, the one problem with
that is that now anytime my daughter hears "Eleanor" yelled loudly,
she automatically assumes that she is in trouble. It makes sense if you think
about it but I can truthfully say this is something I had never thought about
until today.
Today seemed like a fairly normal Monday. After Bethany left
for work, Ellie enjoyed her morning as only she can. Meaning there were lots of
books being read, every toy in the house being strewn across the living room
floor, and listening to a Lenka CD all the way through...TWICE. Basically, we found
ourselves just burning time until we needed to leave for the library to go to
Story Time.
Fast forward and we find ourselves at the library, crammed
inside the curtained-off "walls" of the Story Time room with
approximately 10 other kids, not to mention their parents/guardians. Things got
started simply enough with a couple of songs, stretching, and bubble time.
Then, it was time to dive into the first story.
Lucky for Ellie, the story entitled I Want to Go First,
was actually written by what we're assuming to be one of her favorite authors,
Richard Byrne. I say that because each of Byrne's books that we have read is
very reader-inclusive. What I mean by that is that they all encourage readers
to do things like flipping the book at various points, blowing on the page to
signify a strong wind, or even randomly yelling something at the book's
characters. In fact, it's that last one caused issues for us today.
It just so happens that I Want to Go First features
an elephant named Eleanor as one of the primary characters. It also encouraged
readers to yell "Eleanor" at the top of their lungs at one point.
Imagine Ellie if you will, standing in the middle of the room, enamored by a
book by her favorite author, when all of a sudden, the entire room is yelling
her name very loudly.
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| The incriminating page... |
When this happened, Ellie immediately turned and stared at
me with this hurt and confused look on her face. Then, she came running to
where I was sitting on the floor cross-legged as fast as she could. Finally,
she wrapped her little arms around my neck while burying her face in my
shoulder. With nothing else I could do, I sat there rubbing my little girl's back,
explaining that no one was actually angry at her. It was simply part of the
book.
After a few minutes, Miss Haley finished up reading the book
and proceeded to pass out ribbons on sticks to all of the kids to play with. Lucky
for me, all it took for Ellie to leave the safety and comfort of my arms was
the promise of playing with a ribbon on a stick. Clearly an even trade, right? All
things considered, I feel that Ellie handled a set of very odd circumstances
fairly well.
If nothing else, it taught Daddy an important lesson. That
lesson being that I probably should use both Ellie and Eleanor in the future
when using my "you're in trouble" voice. At least it will potentially
save her some emotional trauma in the future should she attempt to read I
Want to Go First again. #DaddyWrite
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| I think I may be scarred for life... |
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