Nobody has a mama like that!

My own children are almost completely out of elementary school.  I am way more accustomed to the way that they communicate with me than I am with the way younger children communicate.  This has its challenges. 

I have never been the type of mom that could tolerate fit pitching or sass.  I do love the complete honesty that comes with kindergarteners that are just finding their own voice.  So, today when I had to deliver something to one of the kindergarten classes this is what I heard.

I first entered the classroom and all of the children were having their snack.  The teacher was off to the side working on something and the children were talking amongst themselves.  So, for a stranger to enter the classroom gave the little hive of busy bees quite the conversation.  They were all trying to figure out who I was and what I had come in there for.  I made my delivery and started out the door and the murmurs were that I was maybe somebody's mama, but then one child said louder than all of the others "Nobody has a mama like that."

Ahhh innocence.  I am aware that what the child meant is that I was not the mother of any of their classmates because they all knew whose mama was whose.  It just struck me as funny.

I often question my own abilities as a mother.  I wonder if I am doing what is right and best for my children.  I wonder if I should be doing anything differently for my children.  I wonder how on earth I am going to be able to accomplish the task that is parenting with all of  the involved parties making it to the finish line alive.

I try my best.  I am fully aware that I am not perfect at anything.  Some days I troll the internet for recipes and see these women who homeschool, and make their own soap, and keep a perfect house and have meal plans for the next 4 years and good heavens I'm sure they knit their own tampons.  I am not that woman.

What I am is what God intended for my two offspring.   I am funny, and spontaneous and weird.  I like to play games and be silly. I make a mean chocolate chip cookie, and I love to laugh.  Oh, how I love to laugh.  I want my children to know Jesus.  I want my children to know that they are loved.  I want my children to show love to all people no matter what. 

At the end of the day all I need to know is that my two children would be proud to correct that little kindergartener and say I have a mama like that and she's awesome. 

Abuse of authority.

My son and I went to a college football game this afternoon.  The crowd was over 90,000.  As we were leaving we were following the masses to where we had parked.  We were pretty close to the stadium so the crowds were still pretty large.  A caravan of 2 police motorcycles and 2 police cars and several unmarked vehicles were coming up behind the masses so the masses veered right to get out of their way.  A police man walked up to my son and I and hatefully explained to us that we could just turn ourselves around and go the other way.

Now, I'm a pretty easy going individual and it is my life's work to make all people better off when they leave me than they were when they first came to me but this guy was a piece of work.  He had obviously had a bad day and I was an easy target.

The only problem was the way I needed to go was the way I was going and I had to get to my car.

So, I am trying to get an explanation and he is just getting madder and madder and I am genuinely just trying to be kind and get help for an acceptable path to my car.  There were no signs blocking the way there were even other game goers going in the direction that I was needing to go.  So, why did he single me out?  Who knows.

That's just it there isn't always a reason for why you get the short end of the stick.  Sometimes life just stinks and that is all there is to it.  You just have to know when to back down else you end up in a world of hurt because this particular gentleman could have decided that I was being a nuisance to society and thrown me in jail for nothing and it would be his word against mine.

This situation has made me more sensitive to other situations where individuals are put under authority. Take teachers for instance.  Most are good and excellent but if you get a bad one that has an ax to grind and you just so happen to be the flavor of the day, well what can you do about it?  They are in charge of your grade, your future, your education.  All of these things I can only assume are very important to you.

It is going to happen and you will be placed under the authority of people who you do not enjoy.  Hopefully a bad situation will be temporary and you can learn from it and move on.  How you go forth from it is what makes you who you are and is what builds your character or lack thereof.

Don't take jerky people personally.  Assume them to be sad individuals with no goodness or positivity in their lives.  A true authority figure rules with kindness and understand of the people that are under them.  A person that has been placed in authority wrongly will not stay there due to their own actions.

Keep sticking with kindness.