You were a great kid before you made this mistake, you will still be great after.

On super short notice, I decided to take my gaggle to a kid's activity place (it's called a museum, but totally isn't)... I was scoping out the place to see if nursing Erica could bother anyone (there were men in the kiddie area and no women, it was odd). I saw the profile of an older gentleman who resembled an elementary teacher of mine. "Mr. Thomas?" I called out...And it was! He scoot closer and we reminisced. I said my maiden name and my siblings to draw up his memory. I introduced him to the 6 kiddos, he introduced me to his grandson.

Let me tell you, as a child, I gave teachers a run for their money, I was difficult. I got kicked out of class several times. Mr. Thomas put my whole desk out in the hallway! I remember talking with friends, probably being louder than I realized at the time... So sitting here as a 30 year old mom, I apologized to him for being such a bad student. He responded, "bad?! My 'bad' students ended up in jail! They were mean! If you were just talking, that's not bad."

I informed him I must have liked him as a teacher because that was the year my mom kept me home with a fever one day and I snuck out and ran to school. He laughed and I could tell he appreciated it. At the end of it all, we hugged and he said "thanks for calling me over!"

Driving home... I was running it all through in my mind...remembering the feelings I had as a kid. Mr. Thomas is a nice man and a nice teacher, I'm sure he meant well... but I really believed he thought I was a bad kid. I remember being so alone in the hallway, being so humiliated as other classes of kids filed by, staring at me. I felt horrible! This is why I want this to be seared into my mind... I need to think of my children's feelings when I'm serving out a punishment/consequence/reprimand.

We DO need to give our children negative consequences for negative actions, but we cannot prioritize fulfilling that need over their value as a person. I truly felt like a horrible person, even looking back, I thought I must have been a terrible kid to be kicked out. Apparently, I wasn't a terrible little kid. I wish I could go back and give that girl in the hallway 60 seconds of my time, give her a hug and remind her she is feeling the result of her actions, not who she is as a person. I would tell her to write her stories down and save them for recess! :P

I will never be a perfect mom, I will have regrets about specific oops moments... but I truly believe it's possible to have NO regrets in just accepting I have done my best. Now one more thing to add to the list is telling my children, "you were a great kid before you ended up here (timeout!), and you will still be a great kid after. We all make mistakes, just keep trying to be your best!"