[One day in 2006,] I dropped an egg on the floor. Just fumbled it, splat, and I looked at it. I remembered the first time I ever spilled anything and remained really calm. It was baby bathwater, when Kirby was just six months old or so. We were due to a meeting (LLL? Probably, or some appointment) soon, and I had given him a bath and had him all dressed to go, and wanted to pour the tub out. In moving it from the kitchen table over to the sink (a short distance at our old house—nobody who's recently been to our new house should bother to envision) it bent and like two or three gallons of soapy water went all over the floor.
I didn't cuss myself out, didn't stomp or yell or ANYthing. I just looked at it and thought the floor needed to be cleaned anyway, and I threw some rags or towels down on it so it wouldn't get away, and figured I'd clean it up better later. I never felt shame or embarrassment or frustration or the feeling that life isn't fair or that I was stupid. That was new to me, and I was 33.
A week and some ago, I dropped an egg calmly and realized it had been 20 years since I had to get angry and emotional over making a mistake like that.
SandraDodd.com/factors
photo by Sandra Dodd
Thank you for this today, Sandra. After reading this, my 3 y.o. spilled a cherry smoothie on my bedroom floor, my 7 y.o. spilled soup on herself, and I spilled a whole jar of pickle juice on my kitchen table, floor, and myself. All of this before I'd even had coffee :) No one was blamed or shamed (self included), and I'm just glad that I have hardwood floors.
ReplyDeleteNikole
Verdemama, I hope reading what I wrote didn't cause a chain reaction of spills at your house!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteIf the rule of three holds, you're done for the day. (Good old "rule of three" is such a comfort in these cases, no matter how silly it is.)
This is a big one for me and I've also been able to move past getting angry over mistakes thanks to our chosen parenting path. I've been able to grow in so many ways as a person thanks to unschooling:)
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