What I DON'T Want to Be

I've noticed a few different scenarios in the last few days with mothers and their kids. I don't mean to be judgmental, and I probably don't know the whole story, but I hope that I can take a lesson from what I observed.

We went to the heritage farm last week and were riding the train. There was a group of moms and kids who got on the train after us. There was one mom who was so concerned about getting the perfect picture of her kids riding in the caboose. One of the kids was crying because they wanted to get out and the mom was getting more frustrated because she couldn't get a good picture. I wanted to run and let that poor girl out who was crying because she was scared. That perfect picture just wasn't worth it.

At the library today, I was sitting at a table in the kid's area with Lauren. There was a little girl, about 4, sitting at the table next to us. After awhile she started talking to us and asking if we knew when her mom was going to come out of the story-time room and take her home. She had been sitting there for almost an hour, all by herself and almost in tears because she didn't know when her mom was going to open the door. I told her she could probably go look in the window and see her mom. She did and her mom got after her and motioned for her to sit back down.

I hope that I never get caught up in capturing EVENTS with my kids that I forget the whole reason for the events are the kids themselves.