As a parent, do you ever want the opportunity to take five minutes and do them again in a completely different way? We were at the store. Ava didn’t want to ride and so she and I were walking behind Daddy who was pushing the cart. We’d been there a while and so the adults were ready to finish up and leave. We’d lost sight of Daddy because he’d turned a corner and we hadn’t. All of a sudden I was tugged to a stop. Ava had caught sight of a little white jewelry box on an end-cap. It was placed right at her height and was the type with lots of little doors and drawers. She was already trying to open a door.
I glanced down long enough to see what was holding us up. What I said to her was, “Don’t touch, baby! Come on. Hurry up. We need to find Daddy.” Then I just pulled her along. At the time, I didn’t give it any more thought than that.
However, after my own lights out, as I was lying in bed thinking back over the day I found myself dwelling on that moment. I wish I had knelt down and helped her open every door and drawer on that jewelry box. It only would have taken a few minutes. She’d have loved it. We could have used the words, “Wow!” and “open” at least 10 times each.
As I thought back over it, I did the mommy guilt thing for at least 15 minutes and then decided to file the experience away as a lesson learned. I will try harder to remember that this is her life too and she doesn’t want to be rushed through it. I will try harder to remember that even a few minutes of our time makes a huge difference to her and her memory of any given outing. Next time, I don’t want to be lying in bed wishing for a do-over.
