I love you....

So this week has started off on the wrong foot or maybe better said on the wrong “feet”.  It seems like we had such a crazy weekend and it left us grasping to recover.  In the middle of all the confusion, I found myself struggling to communicate with my son.  I could say it is the “age”, but I want to believe that it is also a test that we all go through when raising children.  That stage where they make another attempt to “take control”. 

The last few days have left me feeling like the only answer he knows is “no”.  I feel as if I am struggling to pull my ground on “knowing what is right” and “in the best interest”.  By this morning, I was exhausted and was attempting to get breakfast on the table, lunches by the door, and coffee made before running off to work.  It was in that moment that my son decided to take one more try at “testing my strength”.  It was the wrong moment because I found myself responding in anger and feeling completely defeated.   

By the end of the argument (to be honest I can’t even remember what it was about), I had resorted to the “no video games for a week”.  He instantly reacts with “no please mom, I love you”.  I continue out the door as I am now 10 minutes late in my departure.  My only response “why does it take an act...to hear that”.   As I pulled out of the garage, I could see him standing at the garage door with tears continuously repeating “I love you”. 

As I pulled out of the driveway, I stopped for a moment and remembered my life lesson.  The lesson I learned in the last days of my dad’s life.  The lesson to “live each day as if it is your last”…  It has been a struggle, but I have found myself working towards finding good in all and finding good in me.  As I sat there for a moment in my driveway, I thought of going back in and making good on the conversation that should have taken place.  I felt that my communication with my son was tainted with the emotion of anger and maybe I should just be late and go back in and talk.

Just then I looked up and he was at the window watching me.  I rolled my window down and saw his face smiling and his hand make the sign for “I LOVE YOU”.  I then found myself smiling back and signing back “I LOVE YOU TOO”.  I pulled out of the driveway and headed to work.

So in Keeping it REAL, my lesson today..I am not perfect.  I am a working single mother and will have my moments.  For today, he has lost his video games for a week.  For tomorrow, we have both learned that communicating can sometimes be difficult.  We are all a work in progress.  However, the important lesson to all my followers… Never walk away without resolution and if you can’t come to one…remember the resolution may just be that gentle or vocal reminder that “I LOVE YOU”. …