Several years ago, I was sitting in a parent-teacher conference discussing my concerns about one of my students while the child's mother entertained her 9 month old with a piece of notebook paper. As the baby in her arms proceeded to EAT the piece of notebook paper while she paid no attention to him, I couldn't help but think, "Oh my goodness, I will never be so inattentive as a parent that I would let my child do that!" I let the mom know what was happening and she, of course, did the finger sweep and looked appropriately embarrassed. That event made a lasting impression on me and I still think back on it to this day. Well, at least up until today...
I'm that mom! Since Ethan has been born, I have always tried to do our big grocery shopping after Ben is home from work and Ethan is in bed. Today, I decided that we would venture out and attempt this feat together. I was prepared with toys, sippy cup, and snacks. He did GREAT, I am so proud of him! He only tried to crawl out of the cart once and even started talking about the time we got to aisle 14. That was also the point that he decided he had had enough of his distractions and started throwing everything that I attempted to give him on the floor. Even so, he was a terrific shopper and I was finished. As I was unloading the cart to quickly get checked out, I placed the notepad that had my grocery list on it beside Ethan. The next thing I hear is the nice lady behind me say to him, "Does that taste good?" I then look up to see that he has a wad of paper in his mouth! As I was doing the finger sweep at that very instant all I could think was "I'm THAT mom from the parent conference!"
As a mom, I now realize there are going to be times in my life when I am going to wish that the only thing I have to worry about is paper in my child's mouth. As a mom, I also now have a very hard time judging other moms for I do not know their character nor their circumstances. It's amazing how God uses events in your life to teach you lessons even years after it has made an impression. I am so thankful that he is a forgiving God.
Our Story
- Ben and Nikki
- Ben and I met in 1996, began dating in 1999 and married in 2001. Now 20 years and 2 children later, we have returned to where our life together began. Ben works for the Federal Reserve and I have the privilege of staying home with our two precious boys.
1 comment:
So completely understand. It's so funny that now I'm never bothered by kids crying in restaurants, and sometimes I don't even notice. You just sort of tune things out. Weird things like that happen when you put the mom hat on.
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