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14 Jan 2007 09:36 AM

Dance Baby! My Daughter & Dance, Dance Revolution

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

We gave our daughter a Dance, Dance Revolution for Christmas and we picked up two dance pads so that she and my nephew could play together or we could join her. My nephew has played the game before and he had a blast the first time we set it up for him to play with her. Unfortunately, my daughter doesn't recognize that he has done it before and was pretty intimidated by his ease with the process and that she couldn't just get it right off the bat.

Together, We Stand

So yesterday, amongst all the cold and the wet and ickiness outside, we pulled out the dance pads together and my daughter I turned on the playstation and loaded up the Dance, Dance Revolution. She was resistant to the idea, afraid she wouldn't be very good at it and I said: "All right, will you watch me do it and help me then, because I haven't done it before either?"

"You haven't done this before, Mommy?"

"No, I haven't. I may not be very good either."

She popped off the sofa with determination. "I'll help you Mommy."

Let Me Explain Further

Friday morning, I burned my right hand. Three fingers are steam scalded and they look terrible and feel worse. It's hard to type because the fingers are stiff and the skin broken in two or three places. I keep soothing them in aloe and lanolin, but the point is - they hurt a great deal. My daughter knows this and on Friday when I went to do her library day at school, she was extremely protective of my hand and yesterday, when we pulled out the Dance, Dance Revolution - she was still very protective of my hand.

She wanted to be on my left side so she could hold my left hand without fear of further injuring my right. Her compassion and determination were a joy to me and we spent the next two hours laughing as we stepped, mis-stepped and stepped again. By the time we took a break, exhausted and pleased, we'd mastered following the instructions for the dancing.

I asked her when we were done, if she still thought she couldn't do it and her response was perhaps the best part of the whole day. "I am not too bad Mommy, thanks for showing me that we can both do it if we try together."

Have you ever helped your child overcome a fear?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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