Think
Before

I Know That Now!

A recent Monday Motivating Moment prompted one our readers to write us about a true story involving her co-worker. Candace, thanks so much for sharing it with us.

This morning's motivational moment reminded me of an incident that happened to one of my co-workers. I thought you might appreciate the story!
 
She has a precocious (interpret as fearless and very active) son. When Noah was 3 years old, she went to pick him up at day-care. His teacher stopped her before she entered the classroom and said, "Now, Mrs. S, I don't want to alarm you, but before you see your son you need to know that he had a little incident today that left him pretty scratched up."
 
My co-worker, of course, became very alarmed, and tried to push past the teacher who was blocking the door with her body. "My baby! Is he OK? What happened?"
 
"Well," replied the teacher, "He was on top of the slide and he jumped off and hit the ground pretty hard. He's OK, but he has a lot of scrapes and bruises. The nurse cleaned him up and he doesn't seem to have any sprains or broken bones."
 
"Let me see him! My poor baby!" the distraught mother cried.
 
"Before you see him, I need you to calm down, Mrs. S. - you don't want to upset him," the teacher replied, still blocking the door. My co-worker took a moment, composed herself, and then followed the teacher into the classroom.
 
Little Noah was sitting on the floor playing with one of his classmates. He looked up as the door closed, smiled and said, "Hi, Mom!" He picked up his backpack and came swaggering up beside her - like always. Except this time his whole right side, from his exposed ankle up to the hem of his shorts, his right arm and the side of his face were scabbed over with multiple cuts and scrapes. The large bruise on his knee was blue and purple.
 
Trying to act normal, she took his hand and they walked out to the car. After gingerly strapping him into his car seat, she climbed into the driver's seat, and bit her tongue to keep from crying. She started the car, put it in gear and drove away from the school. Desperately trying to figure out a way to talk about the incident that left him so banged up without sounding upset, she finally asked, "So, Noah, what happened on the slide today?"
 
"Oh, that," he said, after thinking about her question for a minute. "Well, you know I wore my Superman underwear and T-shirt today. I climbed up to the top of the slide and decided that I could fly, so I jumped off." Composing herself, the mother-teaching-a-lesson came out in her. "Noah, it's OK to pretend that you're Superman, but you do know that you really can't fly, don't you?"
 
Noah gave his mom one of those exasperated looks, which only a child asked to state the obvious is capable of delivering. "Huh," he grunted, "I know that now!"
 
          Candace Fitzpatrick

Affirmation for the Week:
 
“I will look before I leap, lest I learn a lesson the painful way.”
 
Have a fun-derful and painless week!
 
Mary Rau-Foster,

Copyright 2003 by Mary Rau-Foster. All rights reserved.
However, if you find this information helpful, we grant you permission, and strongly encourage you, to print this page and put it on your bulletin board, or download an Adobe PDF file with a printable version. Thank you.
 
 
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