I reject the narrative that a child is “not being herself” when she’s moody.
Because if so, who is she being? If she has become someone else, then where did her true self go?
Nowhere. She’s right there, hearing those words – and possibly taking them literally.
Wondering why people treat her like a changeling.
Wondering how to convince them that it’s really her.
Wondering how to keep them close, even before she’s “herself” again.
Some of us continue to speak this way about ourselves – like, “I don’t know what came over me.”
Because it’s too painful to accept that our own selves, and not some outside force, might scare people off.
I get that. But it’s even more painful to feel that only part of me deserves to be heard and held.
So these days I’m learning to identify with – and stand up for – every part of myself, in every mood.