A Stranger’s Kindness
I am writing this blog a couple hours post parent/teacher conference with our little preschooler’s teacher. She is wonderful and it was a joy to hear that Tucker is doing well. I’m always so curious to see how the kids do when we aren’t around. It was reassuring to hear that we have “done a great job so far.” As parents you want nothing more than to raise wonderful people, but parenting is hard and sometimes it can be difficult to see how amazing of a job you are doing. It can get overwhelming to see all the different information out there about the “right” way to parent, but in my opinion if you show love and kindness, set boundaries, and remember to have some fun—then you are succeeding. Remember that when you are having a tough day (toddler tantrums, lose your cool, fussy infant) your children are loved and that is the most important parenting hack of all. Love them with all your heart, plant the seeds of kindness and watch them grow into kind, loving people.
I recently had a conversation with another mom about a random stranger telling her she was doing a great job. She went to the grocery store with her two kids, we all know how stressful that can be at times. That quick compliment and moment of kindness almost made her cry. It meant more than the stranger probably realized. You never know what a kind word might do for another person. Words of affirmation is my love language, so the story spoke to me. It got me thinking about motherhood. Motherhood is such an important job, yet it is the one job where you don’t ever have someone giving you a pat on the back or telling you job well done at the end of the day. That’s why these moments of kindness mean so much. Having another person recognize that you are giving it your all and trying your hardest to raise beautiful, caring little humans is amazing. Someone noticing that we are rocking it and that we aren’t screwing these little people up—it is touching.
I know I have written a post not too long ago about how important positive affirmations are and how we implement them into our daily family life, but I wanted to give you a real-life example. This shows our positive affirmation routine before bed is starting to sink in. A couple weeks ago, Tucker hit his eyebrow on the corner of our bedframe. I was on the other side of the bed. I had just finished explaining why he couldn’t jump from our bed to the pillows that were on the ground. He got upset about me telling him no, as a three-year old will do. He then threw his head forward not realizing how close to the bed he was and nailed it on the corner. My first thought was that I should have just let him jump! I ran over to scoop him up and when he lifted his head there was blood everywhere! I don’t know if you realize how much your head bleeds, but it was full on like the movie Carrie…and it was terrifying. I got him to the bathroom, put pressure on the cut, but not before blood got all over the bathroom floor and Ella proceeded to stomp in it thinking they were fun puddles. (Insert me taking deep breaths and trying to remain calm.) I called my husband who rushed home and before he got home, I was trying to prep Tucker about going to the doctor and that he was so brave—and through his blood and tears he said, “and smart and kind.” That’s right buddy, you are all those things. It struck me in that moment that through the tears, he was still able to remember what we recite together. My goodness I love that little dude! In case you were wondering, he ended up with three stitches and a chocolate milkshake.
I hope after reading this you can give yourself a pat on the back and remember they are listening when we tell them things. Think of me as your random stranger for the day telling you that you are doing an amazing job, because you are!
Do you have any moments when you realized your kids are listening to what you say that you’d like to share? Or, how about any ER/stitches stories. I really hope that was our one and only visit to the emergency room with the kids.
