The Worst Day of Her Life

Today is officially The World Day of Madeleine’s Life and obviously it is Entirely My Fault. According to her at least.

After six and a half years of watching her suck her fingers (rather than her thumb) and about two years of watching her bite her fingernails (and toe nails!  eww), I decided she was never going to stop of her own volition, so went to a pharmacy and bought something to paint on her fingers to stop her.

She cried so hard at the prospect of no longer sucking her fingers that I relented and said we’d start with the other eight fingernails, and  get to the two calloused, over-sucked fingers later.

Within ten minutes she had not only got the foul tasting liquid I’d painted on her nails in her mouth, she had also rubbed it into her eyes.  Tears flowed freely, which probably helped rinse the eyes out.  I gave her apple to take away the taste, but then the flavor got on the apple as well.  I cut it into small pieces and gave her a a cake fork to eat it with, and then she somehow managed to transfer the liquid onto the top of her water bottle.  Which she was frantically drinking from to get rid of the horrible taste she’d got from her fingers… The tears were still flowing freely but were not helping at all.

At this point she screamed at me that this was The Worst Day of Her Life.     I told her it was The Right Thing To Do, and she yelled back that she wished it was The Wrong Thing To Do.  I am officially a Bad Mother, I think.