A Slice of Humble Pie

This week has been filled with humbling parenting moments...I am certainly out of the running for mother of the year...

I was playing in the front yard with Luke and Nora before dinner.  I had the oven preheating while we played so I knew I'd have to go inside to put the food in the oven soon.  Once it was preheated, I told Luke that I was going to run inside quickly and asked if he could keep an eye out for Nora.  (Note to self: I shouldn't put this responsibility on my 8 year old, even if he is very responsible.)  I came back outside to find Nora 4 feet off the curb in the street chasing after a beach ball (not ours) that was blowing down the street.  I was horrified!  Thank God everything was ok and I was only gone for a moment, but that could have been awful!  Luke had busied himself with something in the garage and didn't notice she took off.  (Another note to self: Continue reiterating to Nora that the street is dangerous and NOT to be played in.)

While grocery shopping the other day, Nora was in one of those shopping carts that looks like a car or bus (you know, it has the steering wheels, etc).  Well, I turned to grab eggs from the shelf and hear a thump.  Nora had somehow slipped in the seat, hitting her mouth on the steering wheel, biting her lip, and sliding down to the space for her feet (I know that all sounds complicated, but she was still in the cart, just all twisted).  All of this resulted in her screaming, me taking her out of the cart to console her, and Brent realizing that she had cut her lip and was bleeding (nothing major, thankfully).  I honestly didn't react to the thump while I was turned from her because she's a tough cookie and doesn't react to little bumps unless she's legitimately hurt...turns out this was a legitimate injury.

(I mentioned his in a another post, sorry for the redundancy) Luke recently started walking to and from school with his cousin, Ethan.  They're good boys who we trust will stick together and watch out for each other on the short walk.  A week after they started walking together, Luke was chatting about his day at school and mentioned something about how he was weaving back and forth across the street from one sidewalk to another and that they were joking about going to the park instead of going home.  The red flags immediately went off in my mommy head!  I had completely spaced talking to him about the expectations we had for him walking to and from school without an adult.  Expectations like: walk directly to and from school so we could find you in case of an emergency, stay with your cousin, only cross the street at corners/crosswalks, don't take rides from anyone other than family.  Serious lack of information on my part. You'll be happy to know that we had the "responsibility" talk about walking to and from school without an adult:)

Whew...that was my humbling week as a mother.  I hope your week of parenting was much more intentional, proactive, and safe than mine.  Here's to a fresh start!