Families

Last night when putting Heidi to bed she said “if you don’t live with someone you can’t be their family.”

I asked her why she thought this and she said “families all live together. Kristen moved out and so she isn’t family any more.”

This broke my heart. I am clearly not doing a good enough job teaching Heidi about the power of family. That you don’t even have to be blood related to be family let alone live in the same house or state for that matter.

I heard her tell Kristen the other day that she wasn’t family any more and I thought Kristen was going to cry. I told Kristen to remember that Heidi is 4 and does not mean everything she says.

Now I understand that while she may not be able to say what she truly means, she really is confused by the definition of the word family.

I told her that everyone we love is our family, even if we never lived with them. Grandma and Grandpa are our family. Granny and Papa are our family. Everyone in that house is our family. But also that Shannon is our family.

I probably made her more confused but now I know that I need to do a better job explaining family to her. And help her to understand that we are family first people.

And help her understand that her words have a bigger impact on the people who hear them than she will ever know.

This will all help her be a good person. And that’s all I want.