A little over a week ago, my computer totally died. Wouldn’t turn on. Fortunately I had purchased the extended warranty (which has now more than paid for itself) and took it to be repaired. On the way home, I wanted to stop and have lunch with my kids at a tasty little Asian restaurant. I had dreams of them slurping lo mein and gobbling up their veggies. But the service was unusually slow and I found myself making them take turns playing games on me phone and alternately entertaining the other the old fashioned way – I Spy.
At one point during our wait, my son (now 3 – and it shows) dropped my phone in the floor. I (apparently unreasonably) asked him to pick it up. He proceeded to have a mini toddler meltdown and I was nearly in tears. We were all hungry, it was approaching their naptime, and I was worn out from playing referee.
Just then, I lovely woman from the booth just across from mine brought over a book and asked Mason if he’d like to look at it. “It’s a really cool book,” she told him. And she just smiled at me knowingly and said, “I have three kids.” Because I was nearly in tears of frustration, I could just muster out a smile and say thanks. When I noticed they were getting ready to leave (which coincided with our food arriving), I asked Mason to please take it back to her and tell her thank you for letting him borrow the book. He did, as sweetly as you’ve ever heard, then came back and sat down to eat.
They didn’t exactly gobble the lo mein, and certainly didn’t eat as many vegetables as I would prefer, but we made it out in one piece. And I thought all the way home about the kindness of that woman, and how we are so better able to assist with the needs of those around us if we have experienced similar circumstances. I just hope I have something “really cool” on hand the next time I see a tired, frazzled mom with a toddler on the verge of crises.
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