Last Updated on March 20, 2018
It was one of those busy days– my cleaning day. I had loads of laundry to wash and fold and I broke out the old Dirt Devil for the endless crumbs that tend to accumulate in our home. The kids were settled for the mid-morning. The girls, sitting quietly in the back watching Dora the Explorer and playing with their baby-dolls. But my son, who I also call my shadow, was sitting in the living room watching “Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs” on the big screen. I was okay with that since he already had study-work time. And I was grateful that at least something was keeping his attention, instead of the normal following mommy thing he does all day long. And so since the kids were occupied, I could get some much needed work done.
I noticed something a little odd though, as I cleaned. I kept getting email alerts from my phone. Now that wasn’t completely unusual since I have three email accounts attached to my phone. So, when I first noticed it, I didn’t budge. But after I finished putting another load of laundry into the washer, I walked toward the living room and my mouth literally (really figuratively) hit the floor.
“Son, what did you do?” I asked with a raised tone. “Did you buy that movie?” I looked up at the screen and low and behold it was playing a movie we did not already have saved. It was Cars 2. And although we loved that movie, we didn’t plan on purchasing it just yet. “Kellus? You’re supposed to ask first.”
“But I did,” he responded with a little shriek to his voice. He pointed to the television. “I did ask, see.” Then he went to the screen that showed all of the rest of the movies he bought. Yikes! Five movies!
Your father is going to flip out, I thought, while looking at the TV in disbelief. You see, my husband has been reminding me to keep the keyboard to our television high on the fire place mantel out of their reach. This time, it was right in his hands and he figured out how to order new movies from the Amazon App on Google TV. (Google TV is a device connected to our television that practically makes your television look like an Android. My husband is very techie– not me.) I’m guessing that after observing us, he figured out how to purchase movies. And while I was out of site, he went willy-nilly and got a few of his favorites.
I laughed. I had to because I knew my husband was going to have a Big-Mac attack once he got home. I knew at that moment I needed to have another little talk with our son about the importance of asking first. He needed a good reminder because of course, we already had that talk before.
“Kellus, you have to always ask first. You ask and then wait for our answer. Then mommy and daddy will tell you yes or no. But do not get anything without asking first.”
“Mommy, I’m sorry I touched the keyboard and ordered the movies,” he said with sad eyes and a dropped lip.
We hugged, he sat back on the couch and I put the keyboard high on the bookshelf. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
The buy-five-movies incident is not the only one that caused me to use the You have to always ask first momism. In fact, I said it just yesterday when Kellus decided to get a juice box without asking. We had to give him another friendly reminder. “Ask, wait for our answer and then we’ll tell you yes or no.” We are sure it’s registering because during most times he does ask first. I think in the heat of excitement, he reacts instead of asking. In fact, I believe most kids do. But do you know what? Adults do it too.
I had to ask myself, how many times have I reacted spontaneously by buying something at the mall when I knew I should have considered if it was a good idea for me to do it. But how about when we have a great need and we allow ourselves to fall prey to being impatient, selfish and overly-frustrated first before asking God to give us strength, peace and joy. These should be our daily prayers, right?
Kellus has learned a valuable lesson (we hope), but if not, we’ll keep giving him friendly reminders while we learn to remember the same lesson for ourselves. Just like our children should remember to come to us when they have a need or desire, we should remember we have the Lord as our heavenly Father who is readily available for us to come to him with ours. He gives us countless friendly reminders through his word.
This was a hot topic on my Facebook page. What are some ‘momisms’ that you find yourself saying over and over again to your children?
