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She needed to tell her daughter that she had to learn to live without Bugsy.
This new version of herself needed to start right now by tackling a difficult subject.
“Ruby—”
“I had an idea!” Ruby could barely contain herself. “I could write to Santa!”
“Honey, that isn’t—”
“I think it’s a great idea.” Hannah put her book down. “I’ll help you write the letter and you can sign your name. We can use your pretty glitter pens.”
As Ruby sprinted from the room to find her sparkly pens, Beth felt a rush of frustration.
“I was about to tell her the truth.”
“She believes in Santa.” Hannah stood up. “You said you didn’t want to spoil that.”
“But now you’ve postponed the misery until Christmas morning. If I have to handle her being upset, I’d rather do it now, but you’ve made sure I can’t.”
Hannah paused by the door. “Beth—”
“If you’re about to tell me to calm down, then don’t. I know you mean well, but the truth is you don’t know anything about children.”
There was a hideous silence, and then Hannah turned and followed Ruby out of the room without saying anything else.
Beth bit her lip. “Now I’ve upset her.”
“What you’ve done is knock her confidence.” Posy sounded weary. “She doesn’t think she’s good with kids, and you’ve made her feel she’s right in that assumption. You should cut her some slack.”
“I’m the one who will have to figure out how to explain to Ruby on Christmas morning that Santa doesn’t always give us what we ask for, even when we’re good.”
“Is that such a bad lesson? We don’t always get everything we want—that’s a truth of life.” Posy watched as the fire flickered to life. “I understand that you want to keep the Santa thing alive, and that’s natural. Christmas is a magical time when small children are around. But you can’t raise kids to believe life is always going to be smooth. Sometimes life throws rocks at you, and when that happens, they need to learn to dodge when they can and get back up if they’re hit. You need to teach them to handle the rocks.”
“You’re saying I’m not a good mom.”
“I’m not saying that. I’m saying that being a good mom isn’t just about protecting your kids from hurt, it’s about showing them how to cope with hurt. It’s about teaching them resilience and giving them the tools to handle whatever comes their way.” She walked out of the room and Beth stared after her.
Deep down she was uncomfortably aware that Posy was right.
She needed to stop protecting her children from every little hurt.
Could she do that?
26
Hannah
The storm hit later that morning, the wind whipping at the windows and roaring through the trees. Some snapped at the roots and came crashing down, others bent and groaned under the pressure.
It sounded as if someone was wailing outside the window.
Hannah wondered if she was the only one who thought it sounded like a baby crying. Or maybe it was a reflection of the fact that all she could think about was the pregnancy.
Beth’s words had hurt her.
You don’t know anything about children.
And yet here she was, pregnant. She had seven and a half months to figure it out.
