Winning the Day

On this day I was winning. I, Rose Morris, found my house and myself passably clean, the kids snot free, off to school, and business meetings running as smooth as the black coffee I was inhaling to fuel the day. I was thriving, in the zone, nocking off the daily to do’s like shooting ducks in a row to win the big teddy bear prize at the fair.

As I sat with a colleague in triumphant bliss, furiously digesting the details of our business meetings with more coffee, my son Abram burst through the front door coming in hot!  “You forgot about me!” he bellowed with a voice between anger and crying that can shake a parent to their very soul, or jump on their last nerve. I immediately realized that it was a Monday, the day I normally picked Abram up at the bus stop to take him to his afterschool program at Wesley Spectrum Wonderkids. Abram’s meltdown would be imminent.
“Hey buddy, its okay.” I said in a soothing voice gathering Abram in my arms. “We have plenty of time to get you there”. I then proceeded to calm Abram by continuing to embrace him, murmuring words of reassurance that we would make sure he would get to his program on time. Abram’s emotions amazingly subsided, then I persuaded him to have a peanut butter sandwich and led him to the kitchen to make one.

We can all learn from Abram to choose how to respond when we drop the ball as a parent or on the job. I’d like to say that I choose to love and patience, over throwing a stress ball at my husband, however, most of the time that’s not the case. Remembering what is most important, helps all of us to understand that it’s okay to make mistakes but the true victory is in how we handle them. Understanding that Abram’s emotional well-being came before my frustrations was Abram’s lesson for me. So yes I won! Then I eventually took a shower.