Bites, Biting and a Better Way (posted by MARY)

Nathan bit Sarah pretty hard yesterday (see last post for more details on this). There are two places where his teeth actually gouged away her skin. Poor Sarah was having a hard time dealing with the pain and I was having a hard time consoling her since I was nursing Jane. She asked to speak to her daddy - but I knew that he was still attending his conference. Then she asked me to take a picture to send to daddy so he could see it right now. I sypathetically explained that daddy didn't have access to a computer right now and so he can't see the picture. She seemed to accept that. Finally, she asked me to take a picture and put it on our blog. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:


Me: Why do you want me to put it on our blog?

Sarah: (probably thinking to herself that if daddy was here he would inherently understand the need to blog everything especially this) So that everyone can see it my "owy". (Duh, mom - do I have to spell everything out! - where is daddy??)

Me: Why do you want everyone to see it?

Sarah: So they can know that Nathan bit me and that it hurts.

Me: (I am getting pretty curious at this point as to why she (and all of us for that matter) thinks that everyone else knowing about her pain will affect her somehow) How will that help you?

Sarah: So when all the brothers and sisters look at it and see it they will know that it hurts and they will not hurt each other, but make better choices.


Bravo Sarah! I didn't think of that. And so I share the picture of her bite mark with you - and your children. It isn't very clear because the flash kept whiting it out - but I am thinking that you are probably quite content with that :)

I hope that Sarah will learn this lesson too. She just bit Nathan the other day. Sometimes it helps to experience a little bit of the pain that we inflict on others.