Well now, today has been most character-building to the extreme for MamaBear.
Suffice it to say, our house is not exactly the neatest on the block. 'Matter of fact, I'd say that along with missing the gene for idjutness, our family was born starkly minus the Clean Gene.
Normally, this doesn't bother me much; whenever someone is due to come over, I will schedule out the day to ensure every required room is taking care of and made appropriate for the company.
Take today, for instance!
I was expecting my guest at 4pm, so happily mentally mapped out the cleaning I would do from 11am until 3:30pm or. I calculated the time available, and figured I had enough breathing room to zoom on a Costco run for the weekend.
And it was wondrous! Until….I came back at 11am to find my guest waiting for me.
And I realized – the kitchen was still hell, the guest room was beyond hell, the groceries were sitting in my moosemobile….and it was *showtime*.
Happy…I was not.
Well, actually, I was thrilled to see my guest, but quite mortally embarrassed that my abode was not up to the standards I try to showcase when people come over.
Things went well, mind you, but after HS1 and HS2 came home, HS2 decided to revert to some rather childish behavior (causing MamaBear to get quieter and quieter, kinda sorta like Nature holds its breath before the earthquake makes itself at home). The stress-levels were starting to erupt off the Ritcher scale for me when all of a sudden…
(hope you're sitting down for this!)
HS1 came to me and said,
"Mom, you look stressed. You always told me we should talk things out when we're stressed. So can you tell me why you're stressed? Maybe I can help."
Well, flap my earlobes and call me Dumbo!
Gentle reader, HS1's main attitude in life is, "Why hello there! I'm HS1….and you're not! But do not worry; I truly do feel your pain so I will do my best to showcase my incredibleness so you do not feel left out."
In other words, the dear boy was born minus the compassion gene.
So for him to proactively come up to me with zero prompting and try to get at what was bothering me….
That's more unexpected than seeing The Sock Eating Monster abdicate from its laundry machine throne.
Honestly, I was knocked senseless by his gesture; the other three Magnificent Ling kids eat, breathe and sleep empathy.
HS1 does *not*.
At least, he didn't! 🙂
This really did showcase to me that even when you think things might be hopeless regarding your children learning….stay the path.
You never know when the lessons you teach…will finally click.
Parent well,
Mama Bear
