I remember my mum would always make my lunchbox just how i liked it. Sliced apple, sandwich with the crusts cut off, even stickers to put on the outside of the box. Looking back, It was obvious a lot of care and effort went into my lunchbox.
Anyway one year my mum became severely ill over the winter and was bed bound. Shes fine now but I distinctly remember the exact same feeling as OP the first day my dad had to make my lunch. It wasn't perfect in fact it was awful compared to my mum but it showed he cared.
My 4yo mind couldn't comprehend this new emotion of gratefulness and opted to cry my heart out. I must have came across so ungrateful to onlookers, but i resent that.
They were tears of joy.
Edit:
A few people have confusion over my emotional capacity as a 4 year old to feel this emotion. So I'll quote myself:
I don’t think I made it clear in my first post that I didn’t know myself that this was what upset me. I distinctly remember not understanding why I was upset. It was a really alien experience
Also u/kousetsu made a really insightful remark that I think everyone should see:
you've probably looked back on this story and added the emotion to it - we all do it with our memories all the time. Every time you recall a memory, you have a chance of misremembering it and changing it, especially a memory from the age of 4. It's why witness testimony can be unreliable sometimes.
It's possibly what happened here, a child of that age doesn't have the empathy to be upset about that, because they would have to understand that other people have different perspectives than themselves, and it just isn't a skill 4 year olds have learnt properly yet.
They are incredibly likely to get upset about a change in routine they don't understand, however.
pradeepgstsheoran on October 28th, 2019 at 17:52 UTC »
This made me cry a little
brightemptyspace on October 28th, 2019 at 18:09 UTC »
Victoria sponge is so good. My attempt didn't come out looking much better than that! Lovely story :)
1unchbox on October 28th, 2019 at 18:32 UTC »
This just gave me a flashback to pre-school.
I remember my mum would always make my lunchbox just how i liked it. Sliced apple, sandwich with the crusts cut off, even stickers to put on the outside of the box. Looking back, It was obvious a lot of care and effort went into my lunchbox.
Anyway one year my mum became severely ill over the winter and was bed bound. Shes fine now but I distinctly remember the exact same feeling as OP the first day my dad had to make my lunch. It wasn't perfect in fact it was awful compared to my mum but it showed he cared.
My 4yo mind couldn't comprehend this new emotion of gratefulness and opted to cry my heart out. I must have came across so ungrateful to onlookers, but i resent that.
They were tears of joy.
Edit:
A few people have confusion over my emotional capacity as a 4 year old to feel this emotion. So I'll quote myself:
Also u/kousetsu made a really insightful remark that I think everyone should see: