Every morning when I walk into the girl’s room I am confronted with something/someone who is part of our lives against my own will. He is a dear friend of Livie. He is everything I do not want for her but she loves him anyway.
He is plastic and mass produced, he is not soft or comforting and before he ran out of batteries he made loud noises. His name is Buzz.
I do not buy toys like this especially not for little girls but non-the-less, he is part of our family. Since Olivia was born, I have tried to surround her with lovelies that are made of natural materials that will soothe, comfort and inspire real play and a love of natural things. I wanted her to only appreciate toys made of natural materials, to loathe plastic mass produced junk like I do but she loves Buzz.
How did he end up in our lives you might ask? Well, a sweet little boy slept over once and left him here for my boys to play with. Our boys did not take to him but soon enough I found him in Livie’s room. I got so upset that I hid him once for about a half a year in a great big soup pot (the kind I only use when dozens of people are coming to dinner). I hid him because I was not brave enough to get rid of him and because the other children (most especially her advocate Nicholas) had rallied to her cause and thought it was terrible of me to take away her beloved friend just because he is made of plastic.
This is where it is OK for you to think that I am indeed a terrible momma. It gets worse! When she would ask me where Buzz was, I would tell her that he went to visit his momma. She would accept that for a while because who doesn’t want to go see their momma? Then a few days would pass and she would again ask me to look for him. I really struggled with this one. Do I put what I think is good for her before what she loves? After a few months, she stopped looking for him but would mention him once in a while. Then the day came when she found him. She was so happy to see him. How could I not see how happy he made her?
Now Buzz is one of us and it has not stopped her from loving any of her dolls or playing with her natural toys. She has dance parties with him and often tells me all the things Buzz did while he was off “visiting his momma”. She loves him and that’s all there is to it.
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