Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Sometimes I feel that Ricki is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—or like the little girl from Mother Goose with the “curl in the middle of her forehead”. Because when she is good… she is very good… and when she is bad… she is horrid.

Yesterday at swimming she was good most of the time. However, near the end of the lesson she spat at the teacher (who, thank G-d, gave Ricki a piece of her mind). Then she acted the same way to a teen there. Of course there were “consequences”, and she was contrite, but I was very adamant that I was not forgiving her as this is an activity that has often been repeated. Next week we have to skip the lesson for technical/religious reasons. But she doesn’t know that, and she will be informed next week that swimming was cancelled because last week she spit.
Then, later in the day, I had no choice but to take her with me to a meeting in Jerusalem. I bought her a new book to read there, to keep her occupied. However, the meeting took MUCH longer than I had anticipated. And Ricki sat there quietly for two and a half hours!!!!! So she was “very, very good”.