Undone

So, I lost it yesterday when my child's itouch screen turned up cracked. I cracked up into yeller-mom as the "not me" ghost was blamed and all five kids had been seen playing with it during the few hours span of the afternoon. I unraveled because it was the SECOND electronic device to be cracked in a week and the FIFTH thing if you count whoever sat on my coffee table, and broke a cereal bowl, and left a glass inside a smoothie blender.

 

I wish I were more cool, calm, and collected. It probably dropped out of a back pocket and shattered on the cement garage floor- something that (I logically understand) could happen to anyone. When I took the first child's itouch to be repaired there were walls of cracked screens on display, a testament to the fact that we are not the only family that breaks things. Yet I still feel frustrated over carelessness and destruction (and eighty-five dollar repair bills). Even when our children understand that they are responsible for repairs...I'm still frustrated.

I felt angry that one child got in the car and strapped herself in with no ballet shoes since her room was so messy that she could only find one. I felt frustrated that another child (a day later) couldn't find his baseball glove before practice because it was dumped on the floor of the garage instead of put back in the bag we bought him. I felt exasperated when the laundry I washed and folded was dumped on the floor and thrown back down the chute...still folded! I felt tired when a cereal bowl shattered on the floor when the boys were fighting over a favorite cereal. Part of me can say, "It's just a cereal bowl," while part of me explodes "Really?!! Cereal was worth fighting over?" And in the same explosive breath, "Watch your step so you don't get cut!"

We teach organization. We buy bags and containers and bins to have a system in place, yet in the bustle of life with many people in the same house, things get broken and lost. And when they do, I need to have a little more grace with those under my care, who do not seem to care about order nearly as much as I do.

Help me to teach my kids to be responsible, honest, organized, and kind, but teach me to teach them responsibly, with kindness, without the mama-drama.