She wouldn't hurt a fly.........no, really

I love my daughter to bits. She is sweet, she is kind, she has such a big heart. She hurts when others are hurting and always tries to make people feel better. If there was one fudgesicle left, she would give it to her brother even though they are her favorite. She can also be a spitfire, but she is definitely more sugar than spice.

Today I was chasing a fly around the back door, trying to swat it with her flip flop. We don't have a swatter and it was the closest thing to me. I'm not a fan of flies. They drive me bonkers and I think they take pleasure in loosening my screws. Really. Why else do they have a whole house to buzz around in, but fly by ear, my head.....think about it.

So, I'm chasing the fly with my daughter's shoe, and I missed it. I set the shoe down and started walking away. I guess Jack picked the shoe up and threw it in the fly's direction. The next thing, I hear Kaiti scolding Jack, mad at him for throwing the shoe at the fly.

'Jack, don't do that. You are going to scare the fly and that is not nice. Mom, Jack is scaring the fly.'

Hmmm.....so I say, 'I was just trying to kill the fly, honey, so I'm not that worried about the fly being scared. He's not trying to scare it, he is just copying what I was doing, and trying to help me smack it.'

'What do you mean you were trying to kill it?'

Confused, I say 'Kaiti, you know when I smack the fly with the shoe, it dies right?'

Umm, apparently she did NOT know that.

'WHAT? What do you mean? But the shoe just stops it from flying around....'

'Right, it does stop flying around because it is not alive anymore.'

This is about the time I start to feel terrible......and all over killing a fly. 

She walks away, a little shaken, and I follow her to her room. She turns around and looks at me, lip out, and says, 'Mommy, I didn't know that. I didn't know that when you hit the fly with a shoe it makes it died. Why you wanna make the fly died?'

Oh boy. I gave her a hug and asked her if she wanted to read a story. Luckily, the story was enough to distract her from the grief she endured over the fly. 

The girl who wouldn't hurt a fly. Literally.