Today has been a rough one in the Clem household, part of the reason is that we are at the end of the first week of Christmas break and another part is that it is so cold outside we cannot get out to run around. My nine-year-old came downstairs to let me know that he had broken something. I immediately knew that the reason something was broken was due to the fact that he was using an old wooden cane as a sword (don't ask why we have this around...) and this caused me to be angry before I even saw the damage. R.J. felt bad, there were tears in his eyes and it was obvious that he knew what he had done was wrong; he had knocked a picture off of the wall and the glass had broken. Of course in the grand scheme of things this is not a big deal, nobody was hurt, the picture frame can easily be replaced, but he was being careless, and I lost my shit. I know that I said some things that I should have refrained from saying and that I could have handled myself better, but I did not. Once I took a couple of deep breaths I asked R.J if he understood why I was upset, of course he did. I asked him if this was different from the time he knocked a vase over at my brother's house, and he said it was, he knocked the vase over because who puts a three foot tall vase next to the fireplace when they are going to have a house full of kids? R.J. was standing next to the fireplace with his cousin and just backed into it...boom, shattered glass, immediate tears, but he was not at fault because he was not being rowdy or rambunctious. I then told him to go get the broom and dustpan and help me clean up the mess, I gave him a hug, told him I loved him, and the moment was over.
RSS Feed