Breaking The Eggs, Breaking The Fear

I gave my daughter Jillian a gift yesterday in much the same way my mother gave me one in my boyhood.

Jill had asked for scrambled eggs for breakfast, and it seemed like a good idea. So I had her assemble all the necessary tools: the eggs, the milk the bowl, cooking spray, frying pan.

"Daddy, can I break the eggs?"

"Sure, go ahead!"

So she takes one and immediately her face gets flushed. "I can't do it!"

"You can't?"

A cardinal rule in the house was just broken. There is no "I can't" allowed.

She knew what she had said, but pressed on in her nine year old manner.

"Daddy, I just can't do it."

"Jill, just take the egg and bang it against the counter, then let it go into the bowl."

She picks up the egg and hems and haws and gets all red in the face.

"OK Jill, watch me do the first one."

Crack it goes.

"Now your turn."

"I just can't do it," the frustration level goes up.

"Then don't eat them," I yell back, my own frustration level starting to match hers.
I take the egg and toss it down the sink.

Shock Therapy.

We both walk away to ponder for a minute.

"What's the worst that can happen, Jill?"

"I don't know, I just can't do it!"

The eggs come back out, one fewer than before. "Take the egg and put it in your hand."

I cover her hand in mine, both of us holding the egg together.

We raise the egg. CRACK - on the kitchen counter.

Time doesn't stand still. No shift in the earth's orbit. Just a broken egg.

We take the egg together and let the contents spill into the bowl. Some gets onto her hand.

HERE was the issue - she didn't want to touch the inside of the egg. Too slimy.

Once the worst thing that can happen to her in this situation has happened...

and it wasn't terrible...

she proceeds to break three more eggs; two for me, two for her.

She washes her hands. I wash mine.

She makes 'em. We eat 'em.

Another day, another crisis negotiated.

Who needs your strength to carry them over the mountain? It may seem like a molehill to you, but someone else has anxiety over it.

Who do you trust to help get you over your own mountain? It's probably not so bad.

It'll certainly make the two of you stronger!