I will try to do better

I’m disappointed in myself today.

Yesterday I was up at Bethesda with Benjamin. We went to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory as a treat. I put money in the meter, we went inside and had a lovely lunch. After we pulled away and were heading home Ben said to me:

“I’m sad we didn’t give that man who was homeless any money.”

“What man?” I asked.

“The man, who was there at the meter.”

“Oh,” I said, “I didn’t see him.”

But then it struck me. I HAD seen him. I had seen a man sitting on a pile of stuff but didn’t take the time to really look at him and see him as a real someone; someone in need. I think I did realize he was homeless but I didn’t process it properly and realize I could do something.

I don’t know why, since I’m usually quite attuned to that sort of thing. Maybe it was because of the doctor’s appointment I’d had with my son, or because I’d scraped the car in the parking garage on the way out of the hospital, or because I have been so tired given all the running around or

…..really…WHO CARES WHY…I DIDN’T LOOK AT HIM and I didn’t SEE him.

But my son did.

I think that makes me feel worse in some ways. He saw a man who needed us and his mom didn’t do anything to help him.

I hope today that if I see someone in need I really do SEE him or her and don’t just think about myself.

Thank you son, for opening my eyes and reminding me to look and to see and to realize it is not just about me.

Today I will try to do better.

School Daze

Keeping the boys on track with good grades is kicking my butt.  I’m really not sure I’m up to it, but I accepted the responsibility when my husband and I agreed I would be the parent staying home.

 
Sam returned from school a while ago with an abysmal score on his pre-test on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.   Now I happen to consider Dr. King one of the greatest Americans of our time and I wasn’t happy that Sam wasn’t “getting it”.  For the weekend that followed I came up with study guides, matching questions, flash cards; I mean that boy knew everything about Dr. King there was to know.  His big test was on a Tuesday and when he came off the bus, discussing the test was our first order of business.

“How’d it go?” I asked; my fingers crossed.

“Pretty well.” he said.

I quietly commenced to pat myself on the back as we mommies do sometimes when we know we’ve made a difference in our kid’s lives; and to keep from going insane.

Come Friday when papers came home I was shocked to see the big fat 60 on his test sheet.  Sammy had missed four of the ten questions on Dr. King’s life. I looked at the test.  There was a paragraph to read and questions following the paragraph.  They weren’t exactly the questions we studied but the paragraph clearly laid out the information required.  I was deflated; and then I was MAD.

“Sammy, you come here and read this paragraph right now and then you’re going to answer every one of those questions.” I bellowed.

Sam came over, read the paragraph on the test and commenced to answer every question quickly, correctly and without hesitation. 

“Why in the world did you miss those four questions on Tuesday?” I demanded.

“Because Mom-I didn’t read the paragraph at the top of the test.” He said.

“Why not?”  I snapped; simply incredulous.

“Because Mom.” Sam said.

“I thought that would make it too easy”. 

I don’t think I can handle this for the next 10 years. 

Parenting Tip of the Day: I read a great tip in a magazine the other day.  When your children bring home oversized artwork that you’d like to remember but cannot keep due to space limitations, take a photo of them holding it.  You can keep the photo, discard the artwork (with their concurrence of course) and have a smaller, more manageable way to keep the memories of special projects.