The Lesson I Learned From the Purple Car...

As I was using my amazing culinary skills today to prepare Brekyn’s “mac n cheese” for lunch, I overheard him struggling in the background:

“Oh, man” followed by the ever appealing, “UGGGHHHHH” followed again by “come on car!” and ultimately ending with a whiney cry that can make any mom shudder.

I walked over and said (in my best whiney voice), “Brekyn, what is wrong?”

He looked up at me with his big blue eyes and said, “I just can’t do it!”

“You can’t do what Brekyn?”

“I can’t make this car go straight to hit the door.”

Now, as I looked at Brekyn lying on the kitchen floor, I could see that he was holding the big purple metal car. We’re talking, this car is SO heavy that it consistently causes tears as it runs over someone’s toe or into a finger. (Why I haven’t accidentally “lost” it yet is a wonder). Nevertheless, Brekyn’s apparent mission at this point in time was to send the car sailing across the kitchen into the side door.

I’ll be honest, my first thought was to say something along the lines of; “Brekyn, don’t worry about it. Lunch is almost ready and you shouldn’t be rolling that big car into the door anyway. It’s going to leave dents.”

However, as I looked into those blue eyes I thought of something that I recently heard.

Often as parents it is easy to overlook the problems that our children are having as being unimportant or petty. Obviously, in our experience of life, we know that when Brekyn is 30 he will not still be dwelling on the fact that the purple car didn’t go straight when he was 2. BUT, just because his problem is not as big as some of the problems that I would consider truly important, I have to remember that it is truly important in his little world.

Therefore, I resisted all temptations to avoid the conversation and I grabbed a towel and got down on my knees instead. I explained to Brekyn that maybe if we rolled up this towel and placed it by the door, it would give him something that he could aim at. I then took the purple car and took my best shot at sliding it across the kitchen floor and into the towel at the base of the door.

Then it was Brekyn’s turn. As he pulled the car back he actually turned to me and smiled his big dimpled smile (be still my heart!). Then the heavy purple car sailed across the kitchen floor and landed softly against the rolled up towel. At that moment Brekyn’s hands shot straight into the air and he yelled out, “YES, I DID IT!!!!”

It was a precious moment and it meant the world to me. Sure, it’s just a car and it’s just a game…but to him, it was one of the best parts of his day. Instead of ignoring the situation and distracting him with his lunch, I was blessed to be reminded of how precious these moments are in his little life. Of course, I must admit that it was a stroke of genius to add in the towel…a great lesson learned AND no dents in the door! Chalk one up for Mom!:)