Going's On

April is a bit of a crazy month around here.  We are currently in the midst of our literacy days, which are fun, hectic, joyous, and sanity-breaking, all at the same time.  And it doesn't help that I'm sick for this one.  Which pretty much sums up my week.

Of course, there's always a story to be told in the Ocker household, so here is one for this week...

On Tuesday, I took the littles into town for Elly's orthodontist appointment.  We had other errands and ended up being gone most of the day.  At a stop for gas, all of the boys needed to go to the bathroom so I let them go in while I waited outside the door.

A little back story: Titus has recently decided to play that everyone is a bad guy.  Literally everyone.  In a joking manner, of course.  And because it's our family, I have just ignored him when he says it, just thinking, "Oh, he's playing.  No big deal.  Right?"  Ha!

As the boys were in the bathroom, a police officer walked in.  He came out before they were done.  When Wallace came out with Titus, he immediately said, "Momma, Titus was not nice in the bathroom."  Honestly, this did not surprise me.  I mean, Titus is 3 and really needs an adult voice to listen to.  But I waved him off and told him we'd talk about it in the van.

And we did.  And I felt humiliated... Apparently, as the officer was washing his hands, Titus declared to Wallace that he (the officer) was a bad guy.  Loudly.  Wallace tried to shush him but he just said it again, thinking how funny he was.

This made me feel like a complete failure as a parent.  I should never have been letting that go and brushing it off.  But I did.  And now some poor guy out there, putting his life on the line for others, was made to feel like there's another family out there teaching their children that his profession is all "bad."

If he had still been at the gas station, I would have taken Titus to him to apologize.  But he was gone. So even though I don't feel like I got to make it "right," I definitely got reminded of a lesson that I have long shared with others: if it won't be cute when they're 15, it's not cute when they're 3.

Yeah, he's going to stop playing that everyone is a bad guy.  Immediately.  😳