hag island 4eva

And I know this is going to make me sound like I indulge my kid's moods and tiptoe around her emotions. Stay with me.

My daughter is incredibly intelligent and endlessly interesting. Everyone who meets her ends up laughing in genuine amazement at the things she says and understands. I call her an old soul because sometimes she has the wisdom of a grandma.

(She also happens to be riding the emotional rollercoaster of puberty.)

Lately she's had some disappointing results in activities she loves. We think she'd do better if she pushed herself more (duh), but any encouragement to try harder makes her shut down. She gets frustrated, angry, and then... doesn't try harder. I gentle parent the shit out of the situations, even if she takes it out on me. I also have told her to buck up numerous times but that makes her cry and then my heart breaks either way. I think I have coddled her and also have lost control of my frustration. Let's say I have a hard time knowing which way to go with her. She's a bit mercurial.

So she's been doing theater for years and absolutely loves it. Most of the time she's in the ensemble, which is normal. When she was younger she landed a couple of lead roles, but once the productions combine age groups, the leads almost always go to the older teens. That makes perfect sense. Occasionally a younger kid with exceptional talent gets a featured role.

Here's the rub.

Her best friend recently joined the troupe. He's one of those kids who can pick up any instrument and just play. He can also sing. Like... really sing.

In their last show, he and another friend got the leads. She tried to be happy for him, but she was so disappointed she almost didn't want to do the show at all. We talked it through every possible way. Her therapist didn't get much traction either.

Now I'm paying through the nose for this summer theater camp. And of course her best friend signed up too—because he genuinely loves it, and he should.

The cast list came out tonight.

He got another leading role. As a young kid. Pretty big deal.

I haven't shown her the list yet, and all I want is for her to shrug, smile, and get to the part where she remembers she loves being on stage.

But the drama of this...

I've never seen this before - what a cost savings lol.

I didn't even know who he was, that Haaland. But he has every right to have that smug look on his face after both of those goals.