Parenting After You Screwed Up
There he was crawling across the floor. He found the object that would give him the lift to stand upright and then directed his crawl toward it. Slowly, he lifted one hand upon the seat of the chair and got up to his knees. The chair was not a large chair and is the one I am sitting in right now. It is just a simple black computer chair, but the same as nearly everyone’s computer chair, it swivels and rolls. It did not take all of my few brain cells to realize that its not the safest chair for my son to be climbing. Yet, he managed to find it. He took the other hand that had been resting on the ground and put it atop the black seat. He pulled himself to his feet and suddenly did a couple of flips to the floor. Where was I? I was on the other side of the room. I was watching an apple/PC commercial.
I admit it. I screwed up. I knew it as soon as I heard his heartbreaking scream fill the room. He was saying, “Daddy, where were you to catch me?”. I ran, picked him up, held him in my arms and whispered, “Its ok” over and over again in his little ear. There was nothing left for me to do, but I still had to do something.
Life is filled with honest mistakes on our part. We screw up all the time. I at least do. Sadly, when it comes to parenting, this wasn’t the only nor the worst mistake I had done. Kids are messy. Life is messy, but continues through and after the mess. We need to remember that our actions after we screw up are more important than our reaction to our mistake. My son had every right to be upset and not feel safe with me, but he moved on. Children will always forgive us. We don’t need to continuously dwell on our mistakes and become terrified of making more. Own up to it, change course and try again. What our children will not forgive us for is an unwillingness to take another risk with him or her. If we lose focus and distance ourselves from those little hands that depend on us to dwell on our mistakes. Then our children will resent us.
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Ahhh, yes….I have been here before. Just last week, Savannah got burnt and it was all my fault! I was trying to cook our dinner on the stove, microwave her dinner, and make her a sippy all at the same time. I took her dinner out of the microwave quickly, checked the temperature somewhat, and sat her down to eat. Then, I quickly went back to cooking our dinner. I heard a horrible scream, and ran to her - She had gotten a bite on her fork and it flung onto her arm, burning her arm! I must not have checked her food well enough, and I felt so horrible! Imagine how bad it would have hurt if she had gotten that bite in her mouth instead of on her arm. I think we have all made mistakes, but it’s important to remember all the times we have saved them from harm, instead of the few incidents where they did get hurt. Parents are busy, tired, and distracted - We can’t be perfect! Many hugs to you!!
Too right! Hard not to dwell on the mistakes we make EVERY DAY as parents, but kids are resilient and they don’t hold grudges.