Today is a rough day for my daughter. She's dealing with several disappointments and while my heart goes out to her, she unfortunately is responsible for the problems. It's a rough lesson of cause and effect today.

Part of me wants to gather her up and not let anything hurt her, ever. But that would cheat her of learning the lessons that come with getting knocked down. Everyone gets knocked down but the biggest issue is if they can get back up and try again. She needs to understand that some parts of life are competitive and require hard work. You can't just coast through things and expect everything to be handed to you.

I expect she'll have a more screws up over the years and that's ok. I love her and I'll never stop being in her corner. I hate that her heart is aching but I'd rather it ache and teach her a good but not costly lesson at 10, than have her learn the lesson at 18 when it can be far more costly.