postcards for parents

Greetings!

Well, summer vacation has started, and less than a week into it 
my attitude is not good.  The first few days have been really hard.

None of us are accustomed to me working from home while the kids 
are here, and they don't seem to understand yet that slipping a 
note under my office door is just as distracting as knocking!

But we'll get it figured out soon, I'm sure.  In the meantime, 
my nerves have been frayed. Yesterday I caught myself thinking, 
"thank goodness none of my postcard readers live within earshot 
of my kitchen window!"  

And then I laughed out loud. 

Of course you all know that I screw up on a daily basis, right?  
Just because I have tons of useful information about parenting 
stored in my head doesn't mean that it makes its way out through 
my mouth at every opportune moment.

So I'll share one quick tidbit with you today, and then I'm off to 
pick my mom up at the airport.  Her visit comes just in time to give 
me a much needed break!

Here's the tidbit:  two very important words that belong in every 
parent's vocabulary.   I'm sorry.

By 3:00 yesterday, I think those were the only words left that 
I hadn't already said.  I had screamed, I had yelled, I had demanded, 
I had dominated.  It was not pretty. 

And when I was too worn out to scream anymore, all that was left in 
me was a quiet apology, and a request for forgiveness.  

Thankfully my kids are the forgiving sort.  We agreed that a video  
would be a very good thing, and I went upstairs to do some yoga. 

Ninety minutes later, we started fresh. 

It's ok for your kids to know that you've made a mistake, or acted in 
the way you're not proud of.  And it's good for them to learn from your 
example what to do when they themselves make a mistake ... apologize, 
take responsibility, and then take action to correct the harm and 
reduce the probability of it happening again.  

Then just let it go, and move on. 

And FYI, I've recently discovered that popsicles really help this 
process along.

Happy Summer!

take care,
karen