Now that Karis is down to one nap, it means that I have a companion while I take a shower.  She usually explores the drawers in the bathroom and causes a bit of a mess.  Well, today, I was taking my shower per usual.  She found two new toothbrushes.  I thought to myself that it wasn’t a big deal, so I let her run out of the room with them.  She was gone for the rest of my shower, which is highly unusual.  “Maybe she’s finally able to play in a different room by herself,” I thought to myself.  I finished my shower in peace.

As I stepped out, Sean peaked in and said, “Mei mei dumped out the couscous.”  I ran into the kitchen to confirm this, and Karis was squealing, and Jonas was on the floor with the dustpan trying to sweep it up.  I demanded to know who left the cabinet opened so that she had access to the couscous (it was actually acini pepe pasta).  Sean didn’t skip a beat and owned up to it since he was trying to get some snack.  I calmly explained to him that I don’t like the cabinets open for the very reason of Karis causing a mess.  I took over cleaning up the mess, but before I did, Sean said to me, “You should be proud of us; we cleaned up half the mess.”  “Half” would be very generous, but they did their best.  I was proud of them.

I’m glad that Sean told me what happened.  When I was young, I would try to hide what I did wrong from my parents for fear of punishment.  Most of the time, it just delayed the inevitable because they found out, but I still tried my best to “fix” the situation.  I’m glad that the boys don’t have that fear of punishment instilled in them – that they still tell me if they did something wrong.  There are times when they feel guilty for what they’ve done, but they do tell us and apologize, and they don’t act like they fear what’s going to happen to them.  As a parent, I am happy that they feel they can come to us and be honest with us, even when something goes wrong and tell us.  There are still consequences in our house, but we can talk about it.  The Lord has definitely helped calm me in many situations (not all) to speak firmly and calming, and to let go of things that aren’t important.  I hope that my children can continue to feel like they can come to us when they do something wrong without fear.