Out The Mouth of Babes
Being a mom has its ups and its downs. We have days we'll like to lock ourselves in our room because the baby won't stop crying, the 5-year old is talking your ear off, and you just want to think. Then, there's days you can’t help but laugh at the unexpected humor you get from children. The humor that makes you wonder... "has this child been here before” or “should I laugh or whip his/her butt”.
I have two kids; a 1-year old and 6-year old. I love hearing other moms tell their stories, and I want to share one of my own today, that I just found hilarious. As parents, we feel we know our children pretty well, and usually have a preset reply to their inquiries in the back of our heads. Well, I know I do. I usually know how my child will respond so I have my “come-back” already planned in my head.
One day, I received a bad report from my son’s teacher about his behavior in class. I called my son to have the conversation where he usually says he doesn’t know why he did it, and I pop him for telling me he doesn’t know and demand a “real” answer. The conversation went as it normal until I asked him why he had been acting up.
Now mind you, I already have in my head, that he is going to tell me he doesn’t know, and I am ready to punish him for his behavior that week. He gave me an answer that I did not know how to respond to. He said... “I just can’t control myself anymore. My head tells me to do bad things.” Needless to say, my preset response doesn’t qualify with that answer and I'm left speechless.
I didn’t say anything for several moments, and just told him we'll talk about it later. Parenting is a learning process, so I'm not afraid to say I had no idea what to do in this situation. I still haven’t figured out what to say and can’t figure out if I should've punished him or not because he did give me a "real" answer. I really have been cracking up about this since it happened and thought I would brighten up someone’s day. It's times like these when I am glad I am a mom.
