Words of comfort

What are the words of comfort you offer your children when they get boo boos or when their feelings are hurt?

For older children, those "feel better" lines are hard to come by. At times, I'm quite sure there are no words of comfort when an older child feels left out by siblings or friends. All you can do is be there for them… listen, offer a hug and a tissue.

For younger children, the lines just roll off the tongue. It's simple, or so I thought.

My husband and I usually kiss our four-year-old’s boo boos, provide Band-Aids and tell her "don't worry … it'll go away by the time you get married."

And that worked up until this week when she hit her knee getting into bed.

Cue the tears, the kiss, the bandage and our line.

No sooner did the phrase come out of my mouth and she looked at me with anger in her eyes. I asked, "What did I do?" In between the tears she muttered, "I'm never gonna get married mommy." So of course I wonder why. Her answer was plain and simple and spoken from the heart of a preschooler, "because I don't ever wanna be kissed."

It looks like we'll have to tweak our "feel better" line for the four and under crowd. And as a friend advised, I'll be keeping this post to be read out loud at a later date -- perhaps at a certain someone's wedding.