Oh Brittany….young, innocent, naive, woman-child, Brittany. The lessons you will learn as a (rookie) mom.
Once upon a time, I was a child-less newlywed. Ben and I would often watch young parents with their young kids and offer criticisms to one another on what we thought the parents were doing wrong and how the kids were behaving like maniacs…because we had a litany of experience, obviously. Following these discussions, we’d always say something along the lines of “our kid will NEVER act like THAT”. I shall eat my words now.
I’m helping to teach a Vacation Bible School (VBS) class for infants-3 years at our church. PB goes with me, as we’ve got toys and stuff for babies. The first night, he was pretty cranky, so I blamed it on a lack of naps. So yesterday, he took a couple of good naps, and I woke him just before we left. Ben had him during fellowship time and he was smiling and laughing. Great start! I took him to snack time, and he started to get a little cranky, so I fed him. Then we rounded up the little ones and headed off to class, where PB proceeded to have a colossal MEEELLLLTDAAAOWN. I’m talking a major, arm-flailing, leg-kicking, hide under the pew, pretend he’s not your kid, meltdown. At first, I just pretended that I didn’t see or hear it. Because that always works. If you don’t see or hear the problem, its not there. Right? Hello? I was helping with crafts, so some of the other moms tried to calm him down. It didn’t help. I went over and tried to console him. I walked him around and we walked outside, and nothing seemed to be doing the trick. Finally, I graciously bowed and accepted defeat. I took him home, and stripped his clothes off and stuck him in the bath. As soon as his skinny little butt hit the water, he grinned from ear to ear and started playing in the water. Are you serious?!?#*#(&@&*
Last night, I was the parent of ‘THAT’ kid. Last night, I wanted to tell everyone at VBS that I really do try to be a good mom, despite the fact that my child was acting like a wild ninja. Last night, I wanted to hide under the pews. But, last night, I learned an incredibly valuable lesson. Last night, the old ‘don’t judge others until you walk a mile in their shoes’ saying rang true to me. All of these years I’ve passed judgement on parents for something I had NO clue about. And last night, it came back and bit me in the butt. I’m reminded of Matthew 7:3: Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Parents aren’t perfect. Kids aren’t perfect. God didn’t intend for us to be perfect. Parents will make mistakes and kids will have meltdowns. You do the best that you can do and pray that God will give you guidance to raise your kids according to His will. It won’t be perfect, and your kids won’t be angels. Last night, as I was trying to decide if I should crawl under the pew or just go hide in the bathroom, I was reminded of all of those times I’d judged a parent or a kid for the way they acted. See, I thought babies smiled and laughed and sneezed butterflies and rainbows. Nobody told me they have massive arm-flailing, leg-kicking, hide under the pew, pretend he’s not your kid, meltdowns! You don’t see that on the Gerber commercials!
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| who? me? have a meltdown? ahhh c’mon, mom, i’d never do that…. |
