“I’m Sorry” and Human Parenting

I’ve had plenty of “moments” as a parent when your kids got on your last nerve, or didn’t listen or whatever the case may be…and you lose your you-know-what. If you don’t have those moments, you’re not human.

But today, I had an “I’m sorry” moment with my seven year old. The last few days I’ve felt cranky and tired and frustrated easily. My toddler had just dumped all of the playroom out, Ms. 5 year old didn’t want to do anything I asked and kept climbing on me. Our 7 year old had about 700 ideas every 5 seconds, and I was honestly just trying to keep up. She started dragging their table from the playroom to the living room to ‘build an art easel’ and I asked her not to. She kept doing it and I snapped at her, moved the table back, and as all kids started talking loudly at once, at which point I had one of those “UGGGGGHHHHH FDJKLASJFOIE would everyone just STOP AND BE COOL for like 5 minutes?????” moments. My oldest started to cry, I yet again snapped something about listening better, and when she went to draw a rocket, she got frustrated, crumpled it up, threw it, and said she was no good at drawing as she ran upstairs.

The mama in the mirror looked at me and went, “yeah, that’s on you, lady.”

So I took a deep breath. I walked the baby around each window to get him calm and happy looking at birds and cars. I got paint out for B. I had A come back down to sit with me, pulled her on my lap and said “Sweetie, I’m sorry. I was really tired from just not sleeping great, and it made me crankier than I should have been. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’m sorry that I hurt your feelings. I’d love to draw a rocket with you if you want.”

She started out tense but as soon as I said I was sorry, she collapsed into tears on my shoulders, cried for a minute, and then hopped up and said “I want to PAINT my rocket!”

I know we don’t always have to say sorry for hollering at our kids because, hello, parenting. But today my kids were just being kids. Our morning got much better after I took a breath and said “my bad” outloud. I hope she learned something from it and all, but it was definitely a moment I hope to learn from as a mama as well. It’s okay for our kids to know that we mess up with feelings too, and what to do when we do. We are human, not perfect.

There’s always rockets to paint afterwards.