“Do not talk to me when I am on this phone!” These words haunted me for months. I will never forget the look on the three year old's face when I barked these orders at her from across the room. “This phone” was the hauling phone. I had it in my pocket all the time. I answered it at the zoo, at the grocery store, in the middle of bath time, story time, lunch time … whenever it rang. It was my job.
Her little eyes welled up with tears as she tried to explain to me that she wanted help getting water for her sister (who was pretending to be her pet kitty). They were playing so nicely while I was on the “business” phone. Of course they didn’t understand the difference. All their young minds knew was that their make believe world needed attention, and all I knew was that I needed to take the call coming in so that I wouldn’t hear about how many calls I missed that day when my boss came home.
I have heard parents blame themselves for their children's bad behavior: mother’s feeling they shouldn’t have gone back to work so quickly when their children were born, father’s thinking they hadn’t spent enough time with their young children and mothers and fathers agreeing they have done and said things their children didn’t deserve.
I am not an expert on child rearing. In fact, I am sure I have done most everything wrong at times. What I do know is that as a parent when I make a mistake, I need to apologize and try to explain to my child why I was frustrated or upset. I hug and praise my children daily in hope that when I make my next mistake, they will know they are loved and they will bounce back as stronger individuals to take on the challenges of their future.
No comments:
Post a Comment