Terrible Mom Alert

     This week, with it being Martin Luther King Day on Monday, we started the school week/work week on a Tuesday, which normally wouldn't cause any problems EXCEPT...
     On Mondays and Thursdays my son has archery practice until 5:30pm.  That morning, the morning I thought was a Monday but was actually a Tuesday, I reminded my son he had practice (nope) and he grabbed a snack for after school so he wouldn't die of starvation at said practice (uh nope).  I taught all day thinking it was a Monday (not Monday at all) and snagged my daughter after school as usual.  About 3:30pm I get a phone call from school, it is my son, letting me know there is no practice (because it is Tuesday) and I jumped in the car to go get him.  I apologized and truly didn't know it was Tuesday ALL DAY LONG, until that phone call from him.  He said it was no big deal and went outside to wait for me.  Fortunately, we live and work and go to school all within a 2 mile radius so it took me a few minutes to get there.  I pulled up and he hopped in the car and immediately upon seeing me, he was reduced to tears because he thought I forgot him.
     If any of you have been through this, you understand when I say, his tears ripped my heart out of my chest!  Trying to imagine exactly what must have been going through his mind was too much for my heart and mind to bear.  I couldn't even drive the car for a minute.  I turned around and saw the heartbreak in his eyes and I was crushed that something I did had made him feel that way.  Oh it was brutal with a capital B!  In fact, I felt crappy about it the rest of the night.  I reassured him that it wasn't HIM I had forgotten, but actually I had no idea what damn day it was and spent the entire day in that state.  The damage was done.  I broke my own son's heart.  I am serious when I say I couldn't recover from it the rest of the night.  In a total funk.  He accepted my apology and it wasn't like he was mad or thought I actually had forgotten him, he admitted it was an honest mistake and even he didn't realize it was a Tuesday until after school when one of his friends said something as the bell rang.  Whew I did not like the way that felt.
     I wanted to share because sometimes we need the reminder that we all make mistakes.  I wanted to share because through other people's eyes a person may seem like they've got things all figured out or like they would never do something like FORGET THEIR OWN KID.  I wanted to share because none of us are perfect and we all make errors in judgement and some of us who are normally organized and "on it", well we forget our kids at school, we forget what day it is, we have to be reminded of things that are routine and shouldn't be a problem.  This parenting biz is hard and unpredictable and we all screw it up.  I really screwed up and all of you should rest assured that no matter how your day went yesterday, I took home the trophy for Crap Mom, so no need to worry about things you did or didn't do. 

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