I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

I heard this story from a friend I know well.

And because I know her well, I know a lot about her family.

So I know that she has a very close family with loving generous parents who are also

very loving and generous grandparents.

And she told me this story about her parents.

At one point, one of their granddaughters became very interested in dollhouses.

Now I know this stage well because both my daughters went through very intense dollhouse

stages.

This granddaughter had a very simple, under furnished version of a dollhouse and she desperately

wanted a more elaborate one.

She talked about how she would furnish it and arrange it and she loved looking at pictures

of dollhouses, dollhouse furniture and miniatures.

So with all good intentions, the two grandparents went out and bought a beautiful dollhouse.

And even more than that, they bought all the furniture for it.

It was a fully furnished dollhouse, the little dining room table and chairs, the little bathtub

and sink, even the tiny vase of flowers and various kinds of food for the kitchen.

So cunning.

And their granddaughter was overjoyed and she played with that dollhouse for a day and she

never much played with it after that.

And I was thinking, why?

I was like the one on my own daughter's way of playing with our dollhouse, especially

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