They're Listening!

I will get to more stories from Disney!  But I got slapped in the face with a different blog post. 

One time when Joe was in pre-school, the kids saw me get angry.  Allow me to fill in the blanks that are clearly running through your head.  At this time, I was either overly pregnant with Trey or had just had him...I can't remember ALL the details.  This was, after all, 4years ago!  But either way, hormones were running high.  Joe had just turned 5, so Bella was 3.  Very near the school/church is a hairy intersection.  There's a blinking yellow light...another stop light...left turns trying to turn another left...left turns trying to go to the right.  It can get tricky.  For some reason, the intersection was seriously congested.   I had to wait to make the right turn because I absolutely could not see if any traffic was coming from the left.  The car next to me had pulled up too far and was blocking my line of sight.  The car behind me beeped aggressively at me.  Remember how I said that hormones were running high?  Well, Mommy got a little angry.  I have always disliked using the horn.  Unless you're trying to warn me of impending danger, then don't beep at me.  Please believe me when I say that I did not swear at the woman behind me or get out of the van, but she knew that she had made a bad decision.

The kids have obviously heard me yell before, but the sheer anger in my voice frightened them.  It stuck in their brains.  For a long time after, one of them would say "Remember how you yelled at that lady?"  In fact, the most recent time was THIS PAST WEDNESDAY!!!  Are you serious?  This happened 4 years ago!!  Joe and I were driving to Jiu Jitsu and a car didn't yield like it was supposed to...I said something like "God bless you and yield next time."  Joe asked what yield means so I explained what the other driver did wrong but that it wasn't a huge deal, yada, yada, yada.  From the back of the van, Joe says "Mom, remember the time you yelled at that lady?"  I had to explain that it was wrong that I yelled and that if I could I would apologize to that woman.

What a wake up call, though.  What I say and do absolutely impacts my children in both good and bad ways.  I knew this, but to have it brought front and center by something that happened years ago was a real zinger. 

They're listening....