Each morning my girls repeat a mantra before walking out the door for school. We adapted it from The Help, corrected the grammar and added our own spin.
I am kind. I am smart. I am important. I am respectful. I am strong. I am a tough_________(fill in the blank).
It all started with tough cookie. The first time I mentioned this the children were quite perplexed. A tough cookie? What in the world does that mean? I explained. When you’re a tough cookie you can handle anything that comes your way; you don’t crumble easily. I rattled off a long list of tough cookies that we know in our family and inner circle and they were satisfied, for a bit. Now the morning routine includes the girls giggling as they come up with some silly iteration of what tough thing they will embody that day. I hear lots of tough unicorns, tough mermaid-cats, tough princesses. But my favorite by far is tough rainbow. These girls don’t even realize how clever they are. Rainbows are most magnificent when half the sky is dark with rainclouds and another portion of the sky is clear with sun-rays.
Yes, girlies, let’s all strive to be tough rainbows.