Sunday, January 10, 2010

Waiting For the Other Shoe to Drop

It seems I used to have an endless number of stories to share here, and then they all fizzled out. Either that, or my memory became very short after Miles was born. I'll go with the second one for now. Yesterday, though, something happened and I knew instantly when it did that yes...I would be sharing this on the blog.

Miles is very fond of our good friend Eric. This is mostly because 'Papa' Eric lets Miles play the games on his iPhone whenever we see him. I'm sure Miles will grow up to appreciate Eric for other things besides the electronic gadgets he has on hand, but Eric doesn't seem to mind. He's nice that way.

After Bible class yesterday morning, Miles had somehow found Eric and finagled the iPhone from him. By the time I got settled into the pew and worship was starting, I looked at Miles and realized he still had the phone! I told him he needed to give it back to Eric, and I pointed to the back where Eric was standing and talking with some people. Miles didn't want to go alone, so I grabbed his hand and led him back there.

Now, Miles always does fine when he has to give something back, even the precious iPhone. We walked over to Eric and Miles held up the phone and gave it back just like always. But as we started making our way back, Miles was having some kind of fit, and I had to assume he was upset about giving the phone away. I wasn't about to stop in the middle of the aisle in front of everyone -- and while Casey was up at the front making the announcements -- to discipline my child. We got back to the pew, and I gave Miles a warning: Stop throwing your fit or I will take you out and give you a smack.

Most of the time this works, but not this time. It got worse. And it wasn't that he was making a lot of noise (although it was headed that way), there was just a lot of whining and faces and moving the body around like it's made of rags...that's the best way I can think to describe it. And since I try to be consistent and carry through on what I say, I grabbed Miles up in my arms and headed through the door.

I usually take him to this one particular bathroom when I have to give him a lecture or a smack -- or both. He was still very upset, but was now concerned about my ultimatum. "You going to smack me?" he asked in a small voice. I didn't answer, just walked in the door, turned on the light and put him down. I decided I'd find out what was going on, to make sure it was the phone he was upset about.

"Miles, what is wrong?" I asked, hoping he would actually have a good answer. He did.

"I want my shoe!" he wailed.

At that I looked down and saw that one foot was shoeless, with just the blue and gray sock covering it. And now, it all made sense. Miles had obviously left his shoe at the back of the building when we returned Eric's phone. That's why he had complained the entire way up the aisle to the pew. Of course I had to laugh -- that, and feel relieved that I'd taken the time to find out what was wrong before punishing my child for losing his shoe.

I carried Miles back out to the pew, told him to stay there, then walked to the back where John, a fellow parent, was holding the shoe in his hand and smiling. I filled him in on what had happened and we had a good laugh. I was pretty embarrassed, but the whole thing was too funny for me to feel too insecure about it. I mean, I'm sharing it with the entire internet, right?

Although I don't think you'd be hearing this if I'd smacked Miles before checking his feet first.

7 comments:

Luke Family said...

Oh, Tracey! That's hillarious. My poor, sweet Miles just wanted his shoe! haha. Love stories like this.

tracey said...

I know, it's so sad and funny all at the same time. Poor little guy. : )

Unknown said...

Made me laugh. My in-laws are always joking that for all the times they mixed up and punished the wrong kid or punished at the wrong time, there was another time when the right kid missed getting his! =)

tracey said...

Jennifer ~ Thanks! My parents have a similar story about my brother...my mom signaled to my dad that he needed to take him out of the worship service, so my dad took him outside and was just raising his hand to spank him when my mom stopped him and said, "No! He needs to go to the bathroom!" : )

Jolene said...

HAHAHA. Thanks for sharing this! My kids seem to lose their shoes TOO often in church - must be the carpet?! And most of the time, I'll be holding their hands dragging them along with me, wondering WHY on earth were they being so difficult all of a sudden. :) It takes me some time to find out because they never stay calm enough to tell me immediately and clearly. GRRRRR!!!

Rachel said...

what a great lesson in there about assumptions. And I love the honesty at the end . . . "I don't think you'd be hearing this if I'd smacked Miles before checking his feet first."

Thanks for the reminder!

Rachel

tracey said...

Jolene ~ Yes, you understand all too well. And I think back to the 'dragging' Miles along with me now and feel so bad for the little guy!

Rachel ~ Thank you! Yeah, I guess I wanted to share the honesty thing because, for the most part, I make a lot of mistakes as a mother and don't want people to think I'm every painting myself as a supermom. But thank you very much, I appreciate what you said!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...