I Told My Son I Didn't Want To Tuck Him In

It had been a long, long week. Just coming home from vacation and trying to get back in the rhythm of things. Then add a busy weekend of volleyball tournaments into the mix and we were all tired. Extremely tired.

Attitudes were running high. Everyone was whining, me included. And nothing was going right.

Then it happened.

My son had showered. He was clean and fresh. Yet his jammies, only worn a couple of nights, smelled, according to him. In all his 11 year old boy wisdom, that called for cologne. Not fresh jammies. So he goes in, way past bedtime mind you, and gets his dad's cologne and sprays it. Now, my son loves cologne. So I am not talking a single spray. I am talking I could suddenly smell it across the house. I go in to see what is going on and our attitudes fall apart. I was not nice to him and he was disrespectful to me. I told him to just go to bed.

Then I told my son I didn't want to tuck him in.

What was I thinking!? I tuck my kids in every single night no matter what. I always have. Even my teenagers. I always go in, kiss them on the check, tell them how much I love them and tuck them in. My kids know this is important to me. I believe it is important to them too, they just may not know it yet. And I told him I didn't want to do it. My heart breaks at the memory of it.

Because of our attitudes, his response was, "Good. I don't want you to," as he stomped off to bed. Then the magnitude of what I said hit me like a ton of bricks and I wanted to cry and never stop.

I did the only thing I could do. I breathed a prayer seeking forgiveness from Daddy God then I went in to my son. I reached down, kissed his cheek and told him that I was sorry I said that and that I loved him so much. He mumbled an I love you back.

Moms are human. Moms will mess up.

The key is to admit our mistakes, to God and to the one we wrong. Even if it is your children. Our children need to know that when we mess up, we fess up. They need to know that we, as parents, apologize too. When our kids do wrong, we want them to apologize and make it right. We need to set the example and do the same.

Have you said something hurtful to your child? Apologize. Explain to them that sometimes mom messes up. And tell them how much you love them and that you never stopped. Then give yourself grace.

**For the extended article, see the Woman to Woman Magazine Winter 2014 issue. Click HERE.