Open Letter to Thank My Daughters
It’s the season of gratitude. Time to take stock of all that you have to be grateful for, but if I am being completely honest—which I am—this year has kicked me in the pompis something hard: I lost a job, I’ve struggled financially and I’ve lost a family member. Even so, I still have much to be grateful for. Gratitude, even during tough times, is something my mother taught me and it’s something that I would like to gift my daughters with as well. Since my daughters always make me grateful, I thought it would be nice to write them both thank you letters.
I am nothing if not a proud mami, so I invite you to read my thank you letters to my daughters and then I challenge you to write your own letters to the people you are grateful for.
My dearest Put Pie,
I sit here trying to find a way to put words together in a manner that can possibly do justice to all that I feel for you and all that you make me grateful for. I’m not sure I can do it, but I will certainly try.
I love you through and through, just like the book I read you so many times when you were a baby. You remind me in so many ways of what is truly important in life.
When I lost my job earlier this year and I showed up to pick you up at school, I felt like I had to tell you what was going on because I didn’t want you to wonder why I was crying. You were 6 years old at the time and you listened as I explained. And then you asked, “does that mean you will have more time to do other things?” Just like that, you made me realize that I am more than one circumstance in my life. Just like that, you helped me feel like everything would be OK.
You wanna know what I really find fantastic about you? That you are unabashedly yourself. You shop for shoes in the boy’s department and when kids at school tell you that you’re wearing boy’s shoes, you don’t care and you keep on wearing them. All your friends want to be princesses and fairies for Halloween and you wanted to be a pirate or Spiderman and not a “princess” pirate or Spidergirl — simply a pirate or Spiderman. But you also rock the long curly hair with pride and wear “girly” things if you genuinely like them as long as they are not pink. I hope you never ever lose touch with the part of you that honors what you think above what others think.
Thank you my darling for your wisdom, love and individuality.
Te quiero mucho,
Tu mamá
ALSO READ: Why raising thankful children is important to me
My dearest Luna Pie,
It’s about time that I write you a thank you letter, don’t you think?
You write me the most beautiful love letters at preschool almost every day and you can’t even write yet. I’m so touched that you ask your teacher to write down your words and what you are feeling for me and that when you get home you run to me beaming and waving your letter in my face.
You are so open and generous with your love that it helps me be a more open and generous person, not just with you, but with everyone. I’ve never really been like that before so thank you, sweetie, for showing me.
You treat me like I’m precious, and as a result, it makes me feel precious. I never really felt precious before.
I had a conference with your teachers at preschool and the things they said about you make me so incredibly proud. They told me that you are kind and go out of your way to include children who are being excluded. That you always notice when someone is being left out and you find a gentle way to make them part of whatever is going on. They also told me that when other children are being mean and you don’t like the way they are behaving, you simply get up and stop playing with them and find something else to do. You are only 4 years old! Never ever lose your empathy.
I love you times infinity,
Tu mamá
Who deserves a thank you letter from you?
