My Daughter

I didn't even know I was pregnant. Certainly with three boys under 5 I was too tired to remember giving birth, or caring for her in those precious early days. As with most later born children, I didn't make her a Creative Memories Album, as I did the boys, I actually do not have any pictures of her. But it is an indisputable fact that at some point in time a girl child joined our family. And as with any child that is not given enough positive attention, she was TROUBLE.
Any broken toy was her doing, spilt drink, toilet paper draped in the bathroom sink,  tumbled over plant, back door left open for the dog to escape, missing car keys, all her. She was very busy. Her name was called out by far more often then all three of the boys combined, her FULL name, so you know what that means. We tried to include her, she has a Christmas stocking hung with the rest of the family. But she continues to wreck havoc in the house.


See I didn't even get her a dog



Oh her name.: "Not Me". I'm not big on the two names as a first name thing, but it seemed to fit for her. Actually "Not Me Lucy " she was declared one Christmas season as her stocking, which was doomed to be filled only with coal, again, was hung at the chimney.



For all of her naughtiness, Not Me Lucy was a huge help when the kids were little as well. Her easily taking responsibility for any less than appropriate behavior cleared the emotional energy from "The Blame Game". ones of my boys' favorites, to "The Solution Strategy", my personal fav. A conversation would occur that went something like this, " Well I understand Not Me took out all the toys and threw them around the playroom, but since I can't seem to find that girl, I guess it is up to us to clean it up, how should we approach it?" Then we could all grumble about that Not Me Lucy and what an inconsiderate child she was for leaving us with such a mess, but be together in cleaning it up and in on the joke, with no hard feeling bouncing back and forth between us. The boys were always very willing to help fix what Not Me created, which was my goal all the time. The boys still talk about her, most often when her stocking comes out. I do believe they appreciate her taking the heat, even if they really had to make her mistake right.

There will always be something, someone, some giant Not Me out there creating a situation.  They are in our lives everyday, in adult form even. Still wrecking havoc, taking no responsibilty and leaving the mess for others to clean up.We can spend our time looking for whose stocking deserves the coal, or we can just roll up our sleeves and make it better.I think the later is much more fun.