Ever read this book of poetry?
If you haven't, then you are probably in the 1 percentile of kids in the United States that DIDN'T read it in elementary school. That's okay, all you need to know is the title of the book for this post.
I KNOW for a fact that Jackson has not yet read this book; however, it seems to be his motto for riding his bike. He will ride as far as the sidewalk ends. No matter how many times I take his bike away or threaten or yell at him (see, already I'm imperfect -- a perfect parent wouldn't have to yell at her child), he goes wherever the sidewalk goes.
I was too trusting of him yesterday. I let him ride for about 20 minutes, and then went to check on him when I hadn't seen or heard him in a while. I called for him, ran up and down my street for him, looked for him on the street behind, and called for him again. Nothing. Panic. Thought: "He probably followed the sidewalk on the other side of the circle." Called some neighbors who live on that very busy road that I can't see from my house, answer: "No, we saw him ride by yesterday, but not today."
Greeeaaat. Finally, finally, after many times of telling him that he had to stay in the circle and and couldn't turn the corner to the block behind us, he obeyed. Unfortunately, he thought that meant he could keep going the other way and around another block. I called my back door neighbor just in case. It had been 10 minutes of searching and calling, and the tears began pouring. Panic rising.
I forgot to mention that I didn't have a car to go looking for him yesterday. As soon as I'm blubbering on the phone to my neighbor, Jackson pulls up on his bike looking just as happy as can be. Until he saw my face. I think he got it this time. I bawled, told him I was scared and that I couldn't find him.
Then, I made him retrace his steps. He really didn't go as far as I thought, but he pointed across the street as if he crossed the busy street. (He still doesn't always speak understandably.) I told him he couldn't leave the yard for a while (not sure how long that means -- days? weeks?) without Mommy or Daddy. Basically, I grounded him.
See, I am NOT the perfect mother. This isn't the first time I've lost my child either. I'm positive it won't be the last.
(This picture was not taken yesterday.)Have you ever lost your child?
Just a few weeks ago Laura (my 4-year-old) and her cousin (who is 5) snuck out of my brothers house while the whole family was there and walked down several streets to a busy intersection to wait for the ice cream man. It was pretty scary for a few minutes. The little stinker (and the bad mommy).
ReplyDeleteI've lost my nanny kids before. In shopping malls and at the beach. The beach was definitely the most scary though.
ReplyDeleteI've lost track of my daughter before but not for more than a few moments and not enough to really scare me, but I'm SURE the time will come for me, too. I've got plenty of other imperfect evidences. Like letting her eat Lucky Charms for breakfast and lunch when I know all she actually does is pick out and eat the marshmallows or letting her watch "fis...Nemo" ALL. DAY. LONG. just so I can scrapbook a little. Yeah, definite imperfection here!
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to find Jackson!!!
I haven't "lost" my child yet, but he as run between cars in parking lots and it scares me half to death becuase I am always thinking that someone has taken him. I am sure that all mothers have moments like yours...it is just nice when the come back all safe.
ReplyDeleteHi, LeMira! I've kind of been out of the blog world lately, but tonight I sat down and read your whole first page. So I won't leave comments on all of them, because I want to go to bed, but I'll try to remember the main things I wanted to say....
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'm sure you're a wonderful mother, even if you have lost your son a couple of times. I've lost mine, too. My first 2 have both had Code Adams in WalMart, for starters.
Next, I liked the etiquette article. At first I wasn't going to read it, but I'm the type of person who all too often says things that come out differently than I intended and end up offending people, so I thought I'd better read it. I learned some things, but I do agree with you that you're going to hear pregnant women complain, it's a part of their lives, and if they're sharing that with you it might be because it's the only thing on their minds right now and they want to have a conversation with a friend. I agree that it could be very painful for someone who can't have children, but--well, I don't know. I hope people can be more sensitive to one another's feelings but also less open to offense.
Next, that's sad about poor little Jackson and the 3D movies. I'm glad you finally realized what's happening. We went to Up, and it actually made me dizzy. I'll be happy to keep with the regular ones from now on.
Last, I'm sorry about your stupid 22-year old neighbor. At least his parents are trying to help. I just hope he doesn't learn the hard way someday by hurting someone else in an accident due to his carelessness, especially not Jackson, of course! My answer for everything: pray about it!
I had to click on the picture and pull it up in a separate window next to the comments one, so that Thomas can look at Dack-Dack bike Dack Dack bike Dack Dack bike and I can comment.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I say, "It's time to go to nursery," Thomas takes off for nursery, so for future reference I need to be holding his hand when I say that. So he took off down the isle and I was stuck in the front row because it was the Primary Program, so then I'm trying to get through, which ended up in me being fairly rude about twice, trying to get through people.
I get to the foyer and he's disappeared, our ward, visitors, and the other ward are crowding the space and the hallway is bottlenecking. I figure Thomas fit through and went down the hall, but by the time I get into the hall no one has seen him and I can't find him.
I turn around. Now the crowd is pouring out the doors to outside! I almost started crying because I wanted 3 of me to separate and go in different directions, and out comes John from the chapel, Thomas in hand. "He came back in when he couldn't get through," said John.
"Oh." What else is there to say? Church seems like a pretty safe place to have a little kid running around, but you never know.
Bailee and her little friend were playing outside one day and I realized I hadn't seen or heard them in a little while. I couldn't find them anywhere! I was frantic. Looking up and down the street (luckily our street is not a main street, and not very busy) I even started checking at the neighbors. I came back in the house to get some shoes on and get Maddox hooked up to the portable oxygen so I could walk up to the park and see if they had gone there. When I went downstairs to grab my shoes, the girls were down there having a tea party. They had come in the back door and I hadn't heard them! Yikes! We all have our moments. If anyone believes they are a perfect parent (or that such things exist) they are delusional!
ReplyDeleteI've lost Kimmy at church a couple times, Kit lost her in our neighborhood once when I was out with April, and once I lost her at Buger King. I'm still traumatized over that one. I thought she was still up in the play tubes, but she'd decided to go to the bathroom and then got trapped in there by a too-heavy door. I didn't think she was in the restaurant itself because I could SEE she wasn't in there. I started to worry and climbed up in the tubes and happened to see her run back in to the play area crying. Later a couple in the restaurant told me they'd heard crying from the bathroom for several minutes (they'd thought a kid was upset about a diaper change). It still makes me upset to think about this episode, and it's been a year.
ReplyDeleteHey LeMira! I am sure that every parent has a "losing their child" story. My worst one was this summer at Lagoon-a-beach. Ashlyn was walking right next to me and my family, but she somehow lost track of us as we were walking toward the exit. She was gone for about 10 minutes, which felt like an hour. All the worst case scenarios were going through my mind. We had about 8 of us looking for her, and I was SOOO scared! Then I saw her holding hands with a lifeguard walking toward me. After many many many times of reviewing what to do if you're lost (which Ashlyn tends to ignore) SHE LISTENED! She realized she was lost and went and found a lifeguard! I couldn't have been more proud of her.
ReplyDelete(Is Jackson riding without training wheels?!)
Jana
Ugh. That is THE WORST feeling. I lost Dominic at Wymount once. He was playing outside and I was doing the dishes. The door was open and the windows were too so i could hear him playing in the dirt right outside the door at the stairwell. Then it got quiet. I finished up the dishes and stepped outside but didn't see him. I wandered up towards Doller's....nope...to the playground behind us...nope....every step I took was then crucial because if it was in the wrong direction I was that much further away. I called Sean (just my BF at that time) and was on the verge of tears when I had the notion that he possibly went all the way down to the 4 plex's. HE HAD. He was only 2.5 and had crossed 3 streets and gone down that huge hill. I just remembering being so mad and so happy all at the same time I didn't know whether to spank him or hug him...lol..I hugged him.
ReplyDelete