Children are Mirrors

If you have ever wondered how you sound, what you say, what attitude you give off, take a good hard look at your children!

I was recently reminded of this lovely fact while sitting in line at Starbucks the other day. I had my Mom and daughter in the car with me, and we had decided to stop for a mid-afternoon pick me up. All was going fine, there were two other cars in line when we pulled up, so I thought it was going to be a quick buzz in and out.

I was wrong! We must have pulled into the SLOWEST STARBUCKS ON EARTH!

So we waited.

And waited.

After 5 minutes (and no, I am not kidding), I hear a voice pipe up from the back seat and say (very indignantly by the way)...

"Geez people, move!"

Oops! That was my darling daughter parroting back what she has heard me say in the car before. (I usually say that gem while driving behind extremely slow people on the highway) Evidently I say that phrase enough for her to have picked it up... beautiful.

(and by the way, we were in line at Starbucks for over 10 minutes... and yes, there were only 2 cars in front of us)

If that wasn't proof enough that she has picked up some rather impatient phrases from me...

Yesterday I was zipping up her cardigan and was having a bit of trouble getting it zipped. (The fabric had folded over the zipper and was getting stuck.) My charming child said, full of impatience and indignanty "What a piece of JUNK!"

Uh, oops! Now I know she has heard me say that before when I am frustrated at things that aren't working properly. To make it even worse, Rick asked her where she heard that from and she said, "Mommy!"

Thanks kiddo!

But I guess I deserved that. I mean, obviously I've not been watching what I say, my attitude, and how I am presenting myself. And now, my darling daughter has picked those things up. Not the things I had hoped she would learn from me.

So now, I need to change the reflection in the mirror (after a bit of laughter at what she was saying)!

Working on reflecting patience and grace back at me... we'll see how it goes ;)


My darling mirror (don't mind the pic quality - it was taken with my cell phone)