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Parenting: He Got me Flowers
By Julie | April 1, 2008
Parenting is such a strange thing sometimes. I have never had any other “job” that required absolutely every part of me. My kids get my very best, and unfortunately, the horrible, worst part of me. Sometimes I see them do something, and I’m so proud. I puff myself up, and say “Wow, look what a good job I’m doing.” Other times, I’m horrified and say, “They didn’t learn that from me!” And when I know they did, in fact, learn it from me, I scold myself and swear they’ll never see me do it again.
A couple years ago, my oldest son had a really polite day. He said his please and thank you’s to everyone he passed at church. Marc and I got many compliments on his politeness. We came home, praising our wonderful accomplishments and the genius of our parenting skills. Marc opened the door as we congratulated ourselves. Our dogs ran into our yard. Our son screamed at the top of his lungs, for all our neighbors to hear, “Puppies! You get you butts back here!” He learned that from me, and maybe even Marc. Hearing him made us stop the accolades we gave to ourselves. Instead, we felt like fools who needed to change our ways, so our son would hopefully change his.
Then came the past couple weeks. We have been so busy. We’ve had two birthdays in our family, a birthday party to prepare for, dinner out with family and friends, Easter, babysitting my niece and nephew, then Women of Faith. Every event had plans and food to make, company over, or trips to a friend’s house. I’ve been trying to keep up with all my usual chores, and somewhere in the middle, spend time with the kids. When I was packing to go to Women of Faith, I felt like I’d been abandoning my kids for the past weeks. Sure, I was technically with them, but I was always so busy with other things. Women of Faith is all about God, being women, and trying to handle our many responsibilities as best we can. It’s fun, funny, and Nicole C. Mullen brings her own little aerobics class. To me, my biggest responsibility before God is being a wife and a mother. So, as I sat and listened, I felt like I hadn’t been a very good parent for a couple weeks. At the conference I decided I needed to do something to make it up to my kids.
I got home Saturday night, walked in the front door, and was immediately jumped on and hugged by my two sons. My two year old spoke gibberish for a good 15 minutes, as if he was telling me everything he’d done since I’ve been gone. My four year old led me into our kitchen, where I found a bouquet of roses in a vase on our kitchen counter. I gasped, looked at Marc, and said, “Thank you for getting me flowers.”
Marc shook his head and said, “I didn’t.”
Then, our four year old smiled from ear to ear and said, “I bought you flowers, Mommy. Do you like those beautiful flowers?” (I think he gets his adjectives from his overly dramatic mother.)
Marc explained our son had woken up that morning and told him he wanted to buy me flowers, and that he insisted he use “his” allowance money to buy them.
Sometimes we can diligently berate ourselves, only to find out we really are doing something right. Maybe a couple not so great weeks won’t undue all the times we’ve given our best.
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