Wednesday, August 27, 2014

SHOE BLUES



I was walking Bonn to school this morning when he decided to ran ahead of me. With that, his shoe flew off to the side of the street with its insole coming out. Bonn’s face became really distraught as he called out to me. “ Mommy, Mommy. My shoe!”. I hurriedly picked up the shoe and the separated shoe sole. And then I heard him cry out  “ Oh No! I will never go to school ever again.”……..


“Because of the shoe?”, I asked. “ But Mommy is gonna fix it, see?”   I went up to him and showed him how to stick back the inner sole into the shoe and then I placed it back on his right foot. “ but it’s broken, Mommy…I’m never ever going to school again.” I looked him straight to his face with all the reassurance I can muster  and told him. “ It’s not broken anymore, Mommy fixed it.” He looked back with uncertainty as if he doesn’t believe me. “it’s broken, Mommy, it’s broken.”  “Now, try to walk….” . He stepped forward slowly and went back to his happy self, hopping merrily off to school as I followed right behind him.
I’m not sure if he has forgotten the incident by now but it has surely got me to thinking and writing. First, I wonder how he came to the conclusion that a broken shoe will stop him from attending his pre-school classes. Well, that would probably be easy as he needs his shoes to walk to school but what got to me were the words “never ever”. Ok, at this point, most of you would probably stop me and say, stop overthinking, it was just child talk. Still, it bothered me. Am I lacking in instilling in my child the notion of putting less value on material things and more on important stuff like learning, joy, kindness, thoughtfulness, …you know all the real good values. How could his world fall apart over a broken shoe? Is this a vision of things to come? I can’t remove the picture of his crestfallen face out of my mind.
Or maybe its just a case  of ensuring next time I put aside budget concerns in buying his personal stuff and really ensure high quality ones. I always try to be in the middle, you know like that EQ diaper commercial, quality without the added expense. Still, I wonder.. . should  I learn something more from this incident/ should I double time in telling him stories of children poorer than him than goes to school barefooted. He is only 3 years old, would he understand that?  Maybe more VALUES stories vs Disney junior adventures?

It’s nearly time to pick him up from school so I should put the keyboards to rest now. I need to review my parenting strategy again and be always vigilant. If things need to be corrected, it has to be done sooner than later.

No comments:

Post a Comment