Mom Mentoring

This morning I turned to see a large bottle of bubbles spilled all over the kitchen table. I was so frustrated to see the boys playing and splashing in it. I got so upset I put Hunter in time out (he asked if he could play with the bubbles, so I knew he was the one who spilled them). I was so stinkin' mad over something so small. I made them wipe it all up, glaring all the while with my hand on my hip and finger pointing.

Then I went back to see the shape of the bottle, and noticed they had spilled because of the awkwardness of the huge cap, and his little fingers trying to unscrew the top. They were simply playing in the spilled liquid because they were making lemonade out of a lemon situation. They couldn't dip their wands in the bubbles, so they just splashed in it. The spilling wasn't intentional. So then I felt HORRIBLE. Horrible mom. I had totally over reacted, and stood there while they worked to clean it up and make me happy. :(

I said a prayer in my heart b/c I felt so bad. Then I dropped them off for the school's graduation program while I ran to Tammy Dyer's house to pick up my camera. She could see something was wrong.

She empathized with the following. She said her daughter once had a favorite peacock feather she would play with all day, and gently touch the feather's colorful stem. Her daughter disobeyed and so Tammy took the feather and broke it. Now, Tammy is THE SWEETEST mother I have met. She is so kind and gentle, you'd never imagine her doing something like that. Then she told me she felt so bad about this (it was so long ago) that she cried that day. She told me "Suzanne, we all over react. The best thing to do is apologize to Hunter". Then she showed me all the "messes" her daughter had been making. She showed me how much more of a fun mom she'd became as a result. Here's what I saw at her house (remember, I went there to get my camera? It was just too handy to not snap these shots):

This is a little house her daughter made. Every object in this box has meaning.


This was in the middle of the room. Notice all the things from different parts of the house that went into this "Doll carriage ride"...even a bath rug! How cute.

Thanks Tammy, for your careful mentoring. I think we'll be making a whole lot more intentional messes around the Calton home.

When I apologized for scolding Hunter, his reply was:
"It's okay Mommy. Everybody 'bees' upset sometimes. You could give me a transformer if you want to."

LOL!! But I did like the "everybody gets upset" part. This is what I tell him when he apologizes. "It's okay Hunter, everyone makes mistakes." It was nice to be forgiven in return. Sure do like being a Mom of such forgiving little guys.