If you happened to be at Barnes & Noble at the Galleria a couple of days ago and felt your ears being assaulted by a screaming lunatic, that would be the Little Miss.
I just can't live with that.
I used to think I knew what public humiliation was all about, like, walking confidently in a mall while not knowing that my fly was open. Or wave back enthusiastically to someone only to realize moments later that they were waving to the person behind me. Or perhaps trip over something small that caused me to fall ungracefully in front of many people. I could go on.
However, I submit to you that there is no grander public humiliation than that of your own child profusely misbehaving for all to see and hear. It exposes the secret fear that says I don't think I'm a very good mom. And as the meltdown goes on and on the fear only becomes more and more confirmed.
Once I managed to get back into my car with the Little Miss I came to the conclusion that the best remedy to being nonjudgmental and pulling out the huge log out of my own eye like Jesus talked about, is to walk in another person's shoes for a bit. Before having my little girl I had very strong parenting views that I would most definitely live by no matter what. I probably could have articulated those views with great eloquence. And when I would witness scenarios like the one I experienced I would shake my internal little head in arrogant disapproval. Well, folks, parenting is not as easy as I thought.
The thing is, I still hold to the view that my daughter should not misbehave and that she should obey me and I'm working on that. The difference is, being judgmental assumes that I am better than someone else. The truth is, I am not.
I can live with that.
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É tão "humbling" ser parents, ne? :-) Esses dias o Eric foi numa festinha de aniversário. Quando ele voltou ele me disse, Mom, I birped loud there and they called me "poRquinho" (with a Paulista "r") then "poRcão". I said, "Eric! You can´t birp in front of other people! It´s not nice!" He said, "but they liked it...they thought it was funny!" I said, no, porco isn´t a nice thing, is it. I could see his face change as he realized that he hadn´t been as cool as he´d thought. I felt sorry to see his innocence a little more lost.
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