Happy List :) Sad List :(

The 'Happy List' is laminated
and on her door, in her room!

I just recently posted about my husbands' grandmother 'Gram' that is dying. She has been sick for a long time and my daughter has had this doom-n-gloom perspective on EVERYTHING. It is extremely understandable since 'E' and Gram are so very close. However, the doom-n-gloom attitude has been going on for a while.  And, I do not really understand it since she is such a happy, loving, caring wonderful little girl. 'E' gets in these modes where nothing will make her happy and she cannot think of anything that makes her happy.

Now as long as 'E' has her way and people are doing what she wants, she is VERY HAPPY! Even, when we go places and we see her having fun with kids and ask her if she had fun, she says "NO". I have tried explaining to her that there are people that do not even have a bed or a roof over their heads. That there are people that are less fortunate than her and she is 'Ok' for a while, and then goes back to the sad thinking.


Scotch Thermal Laminator

However, I really needed something that was going to make sense to a seven-year-old. Recently, I had had enough! I was tired of trying to explain to her to get rid of her 'Stinking Thinking'. When you think of something sad/bad you make yourself think of something positive. It is NOT working. I would ask her, "'E', what makes you happy?" Her response was NOTHING. That was a huge slap in the face since we are always doing things with the kids. Going to the park, library, church, friend’s houses, family’s houses and the fact that I am a stay at home mom made me feel terrible. I sent her to her room and told her to think about things that made her happy. So, after a few minutes I charged into her room on a mission! "Ok!" I said. "I am going to take all of your books, bed, toys, your dresser, the toys out of your closet, your doll bunk-beds, doll-house, bike, scooter, balls, toys outside, friends, family away from you and put you in a house all by yourself." (Now I know this sounds bad, but I was trying to give her ideas of the things that made her happy.) She gave me a sad look, so then I said, "does that not sound sad, and lonely?" She nodded her head 'Yes'. I said, 'Now I want you to write 100 things that make you 'Happy', and I want you to have a list of things that make you 'Sad'!'


Thermal Laminating Pouches

'E' was in her room for less than an hour when she came out with her list of '100 Things That Make Me Happy!' I then proceeded to explain to her that if we took away 'one' of the '100' things she would still have 99 of them. I also, compared the two lists of how little the 'Sad' list was compared to the 'Happy' list. I then said, "with all of the things that make you happy, isn't it hard to be sad?" 'E' smirked at me, and I knew I had made my point. I then asked her if she could go even further with the happy list, would she be able to. She said "Yes!" Now, the funny part about this is the fact that she didn't even have a 'Sad' list. During the half an hour she was in her room. 'E' was unable to think of anything that made her sad!