6 Year Old Lucy: Devil or Angel?

Dear Lucy:

I learned a lot about you over a recent two and a half week stay with you in Wynnewood, PA while your Mom and Dad took turns flying to California to empty the Mountain View ranch that had been your home for the past 5 years. You are a little girl so passionate about turning cartwheels that I heard your Zoom gym instructor saying: “Lucy, we’re not doing cartwheels now; we’re doing pushups.”

Now that you’re living in the Philadelphia area, you have “asynchronous learning” all day Friday, but just mornings the other days. You happily board a school bus for your afternoon sessions with a wonderful teacher and a cohort of 8 other classmates. It’s a big change from California, where you hated being limited to online learning.

You’re a little girl with strongly held opinions, one of which says that online learning should be done with your Mommy or Daddy at your side, but not your grandmother, even if both of them happen to be away getting ready for the cross-country movers. Of course, on the days your dad was in Wynnewood, he was working and not to be disturbed.

“He’s not working! He’s not on a call,” you screamed at me as you pounded on his door. You became livid when I explained: “Just because he’s not on a conference call doesn’t mean he isn’t working.”

Once you accepted that you were stuck with me, you got down to work, albeit grudgingly. You looked at me with disdain because of my initial lack of familiarity with your two primary apps for “asynchronous learning”: Classroom (an online schedule for each day of the week, along with assignments for each day, plus a Zoom link to your 10:10 a.m. gym class) and SeeSaw (an app providing the actual assignments to be done online.)

You made a good impression on me, physically preventing me from hitting a green check mark on the screen. “You have to read the instructions first,” you said, indicating that you are a child who doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

Gym proved popular with you because you could use a basement you’d never had in California. Demonstrating great facility with the jump rope your Dad had to special order from Target, you lit right into me for saying: “Lucy, it’s called jumping rope, not rope jumping.” 

“Don’t correct me!” you shrieked, flashing me a withering look.

You seemed especially happy playing with your dolls, and a stuffed unicorn that seemed to play the roll of doll. After putting all of them in a shall carton, you told me: “They’re getting ready for a gymnastics competition.”

A few minutes later, when I asked you “Who won?” you answered: “It wasn’t a competition. It was just a practice.”

 “When are Mommy and Daddy coming home?” was your constant refrain. I know how much they love you, how close you are with both your parents, and how much you missed them. And I understand that you may have resented me for making it possible for them to leave you and Jack home.

A contrarian at heart, you refused to heed Jack’s instructions that you hug me for purchasing fresh bagels for breakfast or getting you a beautifully wrapped jewelry making set at a shop in Ardmore called pucciNanuli. On the other hand, you made a beautiful sign saying “Welcome Bubbie” that greeted me upon my arrival at your home.

The message I want to leave you with is this: Women like you will rule the world with steely eyed determination and considerable talent!

See you soon!

Love, Bubbie