Have you ever realized too late that you weren’t parenting well?
The other day at Walmart, we were in the checkout lane, and David and Bethel both were all over the place. Bethel kept touching the ATM card reader. They both were in and out of their seats. I was waiting for the checkout person to see if I could use a money order. Just as I finished paying for the groceries, I realized that I had repeated commands to them several times, and they both had ignored them. I felt myself irritated with them both, and really, I could have prevented it. Yes, I was distracted. Yes, they were bored. All it would have taken was a minute or two of my full attention to enforce my commands. I could have given them something productive to do. But, too late.
As I walked to the car, disgusted with myself, I felt the urge to lecture them both on how bad they were. Sigh. That wasn’t the answer. Maybe next time I’ll be better behaved, and they will probably follow along just fine.
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