Sunday, March 9, 2008

One Lesson At A Time

If you park in the side parking lot of my gym, you will see a way that you can cut across and save, oh- I don't know, 30 whole seconds. You can just shave off one entire corner, and cut through the grass.

So many people have done it, it has caused the grass to turn brown and die. In one straight line. It looks terrible, so the gym administrators erected a small fence to prevent people from walking in the grass.

Maddie wants to cut through, every single time we go by it. I never let her, even though people still do it. All. The. Time. I'm getting tired of explaining why they can do it, but she can't.

On Friday, we were casually strolling on the sidewalk. A lady brushed past us, and almost knocked Maddie down. She was talking on her phone, and obviously, didn't have time to glance down to see the 3 1/2 foot person in front of her.

She decided to ignore the fence and take the shortcut- like I said, it does save a whole 30 seconds. It had been raining. You know where this is going, don't you?

Her 4 inch heels got stuck, and she twisted her ankle. She let out a squawk, and went flying. Landed right in a big mud puddle. Her once beautiful, green suede, knee-length coat was now brown. Mud brown, I would call it. Her Louis Vuitton bag was emptied into the puddle. Her perfectly styled hair, now had streaks of mud decorating it. Her dignity was spread all around her.

I stopped and asked her if I could help. She actually started screaming at me. "NOOO! THIS IS DISGUSTING! NO. DON'T. TOUCH. ME. WHY ME?!?!" Um, look, you crazy woman, this is not my fault. Stop yelling at me. I might have wanted to push you down, but I didn't. And, I haven't passed the course in moving objects with my mind, yet. . .

I didn't think it would help matters by telling her that it happened because she was in too big of a hurry and tried to walk through mud in 4 inch heels. I offered one last time to help. She got up and shook the mud off of her phone. Opened it up and strode away. Yelling into the phone, the whole time. Nice lady.

"Mommy- That was disgusting."

"Yep. That's what happens when you walk through the grass."

And, the light in her little head went off.

"You aren't supposed to break the rules. Right, Mommy?"

"That's right. Never break the rules. Bad things happen when you do. Remember that."

I'm going to keep brainwashing my sweet little girl, for as long as I possibly can. At least until she figures me out.

Hopefully, it'll be when she has kids of her own.

Stumble Upon Toolbar

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am evil.. but I laughed out loud with this great visual of this mean lady in the coat wiping out..LOL

Great lesson for the little girl.. and talk about perfect time..LOL

Just My Type said...

Oh I love justice. I think that whole scenario was set up perfectly for Maddie. Now she'll shake her head and possibly make a tisk, tisk sound when she sees adults breaking rules. She knows what's coming.

Too bad it's going to take more than a sprained ankle and ruined heels and coat before that lady knows what a loser she is.

You have the best stories by the way.

Kellan said...

Now, this was the perfect story!! I would have yelled back, if it had been my story - I'm glad it was yours - for your daughter's sake - tee hee!

I hope you had a good weekend - see you soon. Kellan

Amy said...

We went to a parenting class tonight that talked about the importance of finding teaching moments in our children's lives. That was the perfect teaching moment, and I'm glad the inconsiderate woman had to fall in the mud to create the moment.

Karen said...

What a great visual for Maddie to learn by. Yeah for light bulbs, and idiots that break rules! (I think I may have been tempted to point out that it was totally her fault for not staying off the grass.)

Anonymous said...

Don't you just *love it* when things suddenly "click" with the little ones?

Great story, btw... :)

Irene said...

Yeah, that is way too funny. I would definitely have a hard time not laughing in her face.

suchsimplepleasures said...

bwahahaha!! that's with she gets...talking on the cell phone, knocking down an innocent child (well, almost)and, breaking rules! paybacks...that's what i'm all about!! well, not really but, that just sounded good!
i'm glad she got hers, though.
i'm going to use that story to keep on brainwashing my kids, too!!
xoxo

Amy said...

Serves her right! What a bee-yotch!
And I'm all for using any and every lesson to my advantage when it comes to my children!

barbra said...

Real. Nice. I know you're embarrassed, but I am only trying to help.

Well, good for you for offering!

Anonymous said...

LOL. Karma at it's best. I would have said "My daughter tried to be a crossing guard to keep you from stepping in the mud, but you pushed her out of the way."

At least your daughter learned a valuable lesson - I would venture to guess the bitty didn't.

Anonymous said...

I try not to be judgemental, but that's just too funny!

Any opportunity for an object lesson should be taken!

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

You are a kind person for offering to help. I don't think I could've stopped laughing long enough to get the words out!
I love that you used it as a lesson for Maddie!

Website Content and Copy: PBJinabowl.blogspot.com, 2007-8.
Blog Design by JudithShakes Designs.