Here is something I have found easy to do…judge other people’s kids. It is easy for me to sit back and think to myself, “Well, at least my child has never done such-and-such.”
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I think my children are perfect and can do no wrong. On a daily basis it seems that someone is always doing something “wrong” (or at the very least something that is challenging). But I guess what I am discovering about myself is that at no point can you ever assume your child won’t do something.
Now for the sheer sake of privacy, I will obviously have to keep this blog pretty general. And it’s not that what a child of mine did was something illegal. But they did hurt someone badly (emotionally).
It was something that I saw other people’s kids doing but not mine. I didn’t think a child of mine was capable of such hurt. Not because I think they are better than others but that it isn’t something they have been taught and it has never been a part of their personality.
So now I have other parents who are judging my child…ouch, that hurts. I even tried to reach out to that family through an email and only in that forum because I hardly ever see them. But almost two weeks have gone by and I have not received a response.
So I have not only spent the past couple of weeks disappointed in my child and feeling sorry for the person hurt but worried about what these other parents think. The judgment finger seems to be coming back at me.
Lesson here is to not ever point a finger because you have absolutely no idea what your child is capable of doing. It doesn’t have to necessarily be something extreme (which this isn’t) but it can still hurt.
Just keep you’re pointing fingers away from others…you never know when it will be your turn.
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Learning from Our “Ouch” Moments
Have You Ever Regretted Being a Parent?
Photo by a2gemma on Flickr