We have recently had a bad day.
It was raining (as it usually does around here now) , I forgot to get milk & apples, and that meant a trip to the local shops which are a 45 minute walk away. (Did I mention it was raining?)
I dressed the little ones & off we went. On the way there were many puddles, & Emi obviously had to jump in them, but I really didn’t want her to. I didn’t want to take a wet child for a 90 minute walk, I didn’t want to come home having to put the little ones into the bath, I just generally wanted to get it all over & done with quickly without stopping every other step to jump into yet another big puddle.
But, as we all know, when there are puddles then three-year-olds will jump into them. Not gently, not carefully, but absolutely fully & completely, splashing everyone around them with muddy water. (Sorry, lovely lady who still managed to smile at us!)
Why was this a bad day, you ask? Because after getting splashed at least ten more times I said to her, to my sweet little girl, to my fantastic puddle jumper, ” Don’t jump into any more puddles,or we will not buy any apples for baked apples tonight!” I don’t even know where that came from, threatening a toddler? Over jumping in puddles? How absolutely ridiculous! But, the puddle jumping did not stop, & I did not buy any apples.
After the little ones went to bed that night (without baked apples) I felt awful. Really truly awful. This was not the sort of mother I wanted to be, no matter how stressed , no matter how much it was raining.
So I made a plan to make up for it.
The next day we went out to find the biggest puddles, this time with a lot of time & the right puddle jumping outfits.
After a lot of puddle testing we found a stream that was, apparently, just the right size:
It didn’t take a lot of jumping before Georgie, too, wanted to try, so Emi took his hands & helped him climb down to where it was safe.
They jumped for quite a while before they got tired & sat down, trying to catch some fish & looking for gold.
(we found neither..)
Afterwards we went home to, you guessed it, have a hot bath & baked apples with vanilla ice-cream.
I am so lucky to have children who will happily forgive their Mama when she has a bad day,
& I am even luckier to have children who will jump into any puddle, anywhere, no matter how muddy or cold,
because, really, that’s what being a child is all about, isn’t it?
Have you had any bad days recently? How did you make up for them?
♥
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
davon genervt zu sein, ist okay, aber sie dafür zu bestrafen ;( böse miri, dafür gibt’s heute abend keine bratäpfel!
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I am just about to write how I got so angry at my little angel, when he wrinkled a bit his book pages. Books is a sensitive issue for me. He never tried to do something like this, just this time. I felt terrible afterward. And asked for his forgiveness.
I think we all make mistakes, especially as stay at home mommies, when we got almost no time to take a breath, especially when it is so badly needed. But then this is what life is about. I think that in these very moments we teach our little ones one of the most important lessons in life. That is it alright to make mistakes and ask for forgiveness.
November 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Oh Miri, take it easy on yourself. We ALL have days like that. Especially as the poster above said, when you’re a stay at home mom. And what you said/”threatened”, it’s only because that’s probably a method that was used on you. Have you read Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn? So much in that book about conditional parenting I recognized from my own childhood. It’s a struggle every day to not recycle the same bad techniques that were used on me.
All that to say, that you’re doing a fantatstic job!
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:26 am
I think you are hard on yourself here, dont be you were tired and getting wet and its easy top get fed up, especially when expecting. The thing is you made up for it and i think they will remember the fun you had when you found the stream. You are a wonderful mum and they have a magical childhood. You are lucky top have them but at the same time they are so lucky you are their mummy. Hugs
November 24th, 2009 at 12:59 am
My children have taught me many lessons in forgiveness. You are a wonderful mom, and we all have those moments!
November 27th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
You are lucky to have such wonderful kids, but they are even more lucky to have a wonderful mother like you are. So many people I know would be screaming at their kids and wouldn’t feel a lick of guilt. You don’t let them have baked apples and feel horrible. You are amazing!