I admit that I've looked down on you. I mean, really, how could you be so distracted, thoughtless, preoccupied to let your child run unattended across a busy intersection, forget to apply sunscreen to your children on a blistering July afternoon, or not know that your 3 year old was lost at the splash park when you're sitting right there "watching" him?
I'm sure I'd think you deserve the disdain from the teens who collect money at the window and check IDs for residency, the lanky acne boy who checks chlorine levels and closes umbrellas to go home and text his buddy about the crazy mother who let her speech-challenged son go missing and left him to snack on Fritos in the first aid room for 15 minutes before she even went looking. I'd be right there with the other mothers absently holding juice boxes for their toddlers as they pretended not to stare as you emerged from the first aid office holding your little blond boy trying to act like it wasn't such a terrible, awful thing that your baby went missing for 15 minutes and you didn't even know it.
I imagine you must have wanted to explain how there was another little boy in the sandbox, one who looked so like yours, blond, blue swimsuit. That you and your two friends scanned the box every minute or so for the six offspring you let loose to play across the splash park from your lounge chairs in the shade. That more than once your gut told you to stand up and walk closer, but that the park was enclosed, that no one could get lost there.
Now I know the sick, sinking feeling. The disgusted looks from the minimum wage kids who run the place. The pitiful glances from the good mothers who know exactly where their children are playing. And the surreal humiliation of having to explain to the police officer who was called how you lost your son and didn't even know he was missing.
I'm not one to judge anymore. I know how mistakes can happen. How you can let your guard down, lose sight, mistake identity and become the negligent mother. And for your sake, my sake and the sake of dear little Elliott, I won't ever forget it.
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5 comments:
Oh Amy, sounds like a day to remember! Are you laughing at it now? Crying, all in between? What a great post! The reality and mishaps of motherhood!
Oh man. That doesn't sound found...but I'm so grateful that things worked out.
There's nothing like parenthood to give you a new appreciation for parents!
If my teens and 20s were riddled with secret judgemental thoughts and the occasional, "I would never...," my 30s have taught me to say, over and over and over again, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." And as a friend once told me of a negligent mistake I made that (almost) resulted in a stolen bike, "That was a pretty easy way to learn a pretty hard lesson." We'll consider ourselves blessed and do better next time.
--Cara
I've had my turn at being negligent so don't think you're the first! A time to appreciate that "He knows everything about us. He knows when we sit or stand . . . " (Ps 139) which means your children may occasionally be out of YOUR sight but they are never out of HIS.
When I was little, a friend of my mom's left one of her children at the pool and didn't even realize it until she was home. It's good to remember that it's easy to do!
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