Good: On our way to Awana, Scott tells me that he has to apologize to a classmate for calling her a bad name. Thinking through a list of inappropriate words my son might have chosen, I asked him to tell me what he called her. He called her "bossy boots" because she was pushing on the bus. Phew, that could have been a lot worse. His classmate was at Awana and on his own, he apologized. She told him she'd forgotten about it. Apparently so, they were sitting next to each other during story time.
Now that I think about that one again, maybe its a bad mommy moment. Bethany gets called "bossy boots" a lot. If Scott thinks that's apology worthy, does he think I need to apologize to Bethany???
Bad: Last night I felt like crap. The headache clung on all day regardless of keeping on top of ibuprofen. When Ryan was gone for the evening, I thought I did well reading books with the kids, doing addition cards with Bethany (and facebooking about her description of Ariel), and being generally patient with the kids. At bed time, we pray with the kids, I snuggle them for a few moments and then go out. Being tired, I decided to snuggle an extended period and wouldn't mind falling asleep and let Ryan wake me when he got home. But when my antsy pants daughter couldn't keep still, and my son couldn't obey, my headache seemed to grow while my patience began to dissapear. When Bethany decided to get her body-sized shark pillow to lay on, it was the last straw. I arose from my warm spot, told the children I loved them and began to walk out. My drama queen immediately began to cry. No surprise there, she knew she was naughty and momma was done messing around.
You haven't read the bad part yet so stick with me.
Fast forward to tonight. We're following our nightly routine and when I go to lay next to Bethany to snuggle, with a sweet voice she says "momma, I have my shark ready so you can use it as a pillow tonight. Then it hit me... last night she noticed I didn't have a pillow. Tonight, she was prepared with a pillow for her momma. My heart sank with sadness. Asking my thoughtful little princess about it, she informed me that's why she was getting her shark last night. And I didn't even give her the chance to explain last night. Rightfully so, I apologized profusely, hugged her tight, and thanked her for thinking of me explaining a momma's view point to her. She replied with a tender "it's okay momma, I believe you". Well then... I had no words.
I was feeling like worst momma of the year. Now, I'll also say that she was in the wrong and was disobedient because I asked her to lay down. So, I wasn't out of line, but she was genuinely being thoughtful and I was so caught up on the "rule" of asking her to lay down that I missed a special moment. You better bet that I didn't miss it tonight. Thank you Bethany for loving others, even when those "others" are your grumpy momma!
No comments:
Post a Comment