Her First Heartbreak 💔 [... feeling the pain and knowing it will be okay]

Helping this girl navigate her first heartbreak with hugs, chats, pizza and “silly baths.”

I had to break the news to Noelle that her “very best friend” and arguably first love is moving across the country. Unlike her fear of monsters and other imaginary ghouls, I can’t spritz this away with Monster Spray. Her exact response to this news was, “But Mommy! I was going to marry him!!!” Her and N have been inseparable since day one and anyone who knows either kid has heard TONS about the other [even coworkers]! At N’s birthday party, I even saw him hand-feeding Noelle sprinkles off his birthday donut [technically his half of donut as he wished to split his with her]. The way his chocolate brown eyes melt when he chats with her and bashfully smiles and how her blue eyes sparkle when she sees him gives me all the feels! They are SO freak’n adorable and whilst I’m using this as an opportunity to teach her the nuance and complexity of being happy for her friend’s family [it’s such a wonderful opportunity for them] when simultaneously grieving for herself, it’s a sucker punch to the gut seeing your kid hurting.

Of course she’s just 4 and resilient, but today’s emotions and ongoing tears are very real for her. I’m so thankful for technology to help her stay connected and that those two will always have JK. I also foresee love letter snail mail in his and her future as pen pals. As I told her Daddy that there will be more boys, more tears and heartbreak as a result of simply being human, so let’s lay the groundwork to be her safe place to turn to now.

“Listen earnestly to anything [your children] want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”

— Catherine M. Wallace

Banner Image Credit https://fontsinuse.com/uses/38663/rigor-pizza