Crying game

I'm not sure if MiniMe cries more these days as she hits puberty or if she cried more as a toddler. It's kinda a toss up. This is only the beginning, I know. Once puberty has firmly taken hold of her and she hits middle school, it will be waterworks all the time around here.

I'm not a very sentimental mom. And I'm not one to cry at the drop of a hat, I mean Beloved cries watching movies more than I do. So I'm doing my very best to be empathetic to the hour-by-hour drama that is MiniMe.

Today she cried at least 4 times that I know of.

First because she fell and hurt her arm.
Second because I wasn't showing the right amount of concern over a bruised arm.
Third because she was tired.
Fourth because she was thinking about school tomorrow and whether or not she had enough friends.

But the worst, the absolute worst crying came on our drive home from the movies tonight. About 4 blocks from home we came across a cat who'd just been hit by a car. Yes, I was horrified and disturbed by the poor creature and its plight. So I dropped a traumatized MiniMe off at home and quickly returned to the injured cat. It had died, so I wrapped it up in a towel and took it home where I buried it.

2 hours later and MiniMe is still crying. When I try and talk to her about it for the hundredth time, she manages to choke out between sobs "I feel like it's my fault the cat died." When I ask why she thinks it is her fault, she tells me that if she had only forced me to stop the car in the middle of the road, swoop in and rush the cat to the emergency vet, the cat would still be with us.

Hmmm. Doesn't that really make it my fault then? I mean, if I heard her right, she was 'blaming herself' for not forcing ME to do the heroic and immediate thing.

If this mother-daughter relationship gets any more complicated I just might cry.