Mommy and Daddy Not Fighting Any More; Just Peace

 

Note from parent: I would like to submit this story for my daughter Camila Garcia-Monahan, aged 4. She recited the story and I did my best to write it down using her own words. I explained the word ‘peace’ to her when she was very young and she never seemed to have any trouble grasping the meaning and significance. She’s delighted that her story might be read by others or otherwise used by this project.

 

“Sometimes mommies and daddies fight, but that’s ok because it’s just an accident. I love to do things that are peaceful, but sometimes mommies and daddies fight. Sometimes they don’t know how to stand up for themselves in a nice way, or sometimes they just need to be alone for a while. So everybody knows that fighting isn’t nice, but I never knew what to do about it, until one day I finally figured out the answer.

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One day my mommy said: “Please can you clean up the mess.” And my daddy said: “No I have a million things to do.”

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Mommy said: “I also want you to fix the fridge, it’s broken again.” Daddy said: “You’re the one with all that laundry to do in the basement.”

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Mommy said: Erg, you drive me crazy! Daddy said: Me? I didn’t do anything. Then they were about to start yelling at each other, but I used my peace solution:

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I began to sing a beautiful song about peace. It went like this:

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“I love peace in my home. Peace is so beautiful and spreads out everywhere you go… and you can’t just get peace, you need to work hard for peace…but peace is the number one thing you should know…yes peace is the number one thing you should know…and I would like us to come together….and we can figure this out, if we do it with peace and love…”

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I sang so loud and held both my mommy and daddy’s hands, and then, like I already knew, they stopped arguing and started smiling, and then they both said sorry, and then we were all holding hands.

 

Camila Garcia-Monahan (4 years old) as told to her mother, Katherine Monahan