I Love a Good Compliment

I received a really nice parenting compliment yesterday, and had an additional parenting win later in the evening. And don't you love a parenting compliment from a stranger? It just totally makes my day; I'm trying to remember to give out parenting compliments to other strangers when I see great parenting in progress, just because of how awesome it makes me feel.

The circumstances of the compliment yesterday were particularly trying. I watched Maeve push a two year old off a two foot high cement platform, and he hit his head when he landed. You had better believe I did the angry parent sprint to her location immediately. I had her apologize to the kid, then I unceremoniously dragged her over to the picnic table, sat her down, and explained (without screaming!) why it was not okay to shove a small kid.

I put her in time out for five minutes, and then gave her a rundown of what she could have SAID to the kid instead of pushing him, then sent her back out to play. I also did a quick check in with the other mom, who reported to me that the little guy has big brothers and gets shoved off of things all the time; he seemed to be bouncing back.

After Maeve had gone back to play, another parent leaned over and said to me, I really like how you handled that situation; that's how I want to handle things when my kid does something like that. I was floored, since I was sitting there stressing about how awful it was that she had shoved that poor kid. It was a wonderful moment for sure.

Additional parenting win? Maeve was really polite and kind to our waitress at the restaurant we went to last night. She kept piping up with thank yous every time she left our table or brought us anything. I told Maeve on our way home that I was really proud of her for being so sweet to the waitress, and that it's really important to be kind to waitresses because they work REALLY hard!

Anyway, it was a great day yesterday. Today? Well, we'll see.