My Best Leading By Example Story

Sawyer can be pretty careless with her electronic gadgets. The digital camera she got for Christmas is broken, and now her ipod is dead. Gah!! Does she not realize that these gadgets are expensive, and that money doesn't grow on trees?

I sat her down and gave her the "You need to treat these pieces of equipment carefully - when they break because you are careless, we do not have the money to replace them" lecture. And then, patting myself on the back ("I rock as a parent! Yeah me!"), I left for work.

And when I got there, I couldn't find my new, expensive, cell phone.

AHHHH!

I looked everywhere and it was nowhere to be found. I called the place I stopped on my way to work, no sign of it. After work (it was my Nanny gig, so it was in the evening) I scoured the house. I called and called it, eventually the battery ran out and it went straight to voice mail. It was lost.

That night, we had a monsoon storm.

The next morning, José goes out to look in the truck to see if I somehow missed it (whatever), and finds it in the driveway. In pieces (I had obviously run over it. More than once.), and wet (remember the monsoon?). I took back the "whatever".

He comes in, shaking his head, holding the shattered remains of my (new, expensive) cell phone in his hand. To his extreme credit he said absolutely nothing - just gave me a slight shake of his head; which was worse than being yelled at, but then, he never yells.

I had to leave for an outing with the kids, and off I went, furious at myself for my carelessness. Didn't I just give Sawyer this lecture? How stupid am I? How will I possibly be able to survive without my cell phone? It's been 10 minutes since I left the house and I am DYING!!!

When we got home, a brand new, BETTER and MORE EXPENSIVE cell phone was waiting for me. (My husband rocks!).

So, what did I teach Sawyer? If you are careless with your expensive gadgets your dad will come through and get you better stuff. Now that is the heart of a hard earned life lesson.

Yeah, I am not harping on that topic anymore. I simply always try to have my phone with me, and hope she doesn't see when it slips out of my hands (all too often).

Off I go to resume work on "Best Parenting Tips" by Marin Velarde - Super Mom.