Inspiration is everywhere. This week I was inspired by my two boys and it was a simple lesson on how to be kind to yourself when you mess up.

My boys forgot about their book talks that were due this week at school.  They both came to me the morning they were due and asked me what they should do about their project. Well as you can imagine, I was livid! I started telling them that I can’t believe that they were doing this at the last minute and how could they have forgotten when they had the weekend and a holiday to finish everything. I wasn’t going to be able to help them because it was too late and they had to tell the teacher that they were not prepared today and accept whatever they got for not having their project on the day it was due. They were not to have any access to any of their digital devices this weekend and were to get their projects finished as soon as they came home from school. They both sat silent and looked at me with the saddest eyes as if to say “Mom, we are so sorry”. I didn’t stop there and added to their anguish by telling them I was very disappointed in them.

The ride to school that morning was probably awful for them. They both sat quietly in the back seat, no usual chatter.  When I arrived at school I told them I loved them and they both got out, head hung low and murmured, “Bye Mom”.  It was not a happy morning for us.

All day at work I thought about how this was a teachable moment for the boys, not realizing it was also one for me. They knew how I felt about their education and that I wanted them to be responsible. But as their Mom, I also felt that I had failed them. I remember reading about their book talks in one of the notes they brought home, so why wasn’t I on top of it?  Why didn’t I remember?  They are little boys and they forget things, I know that. Some of my anger was really directed at me. So that evening I went home with a different frame of mind.  To look at how we could turn what had happened into a positive.

When I got home both of the boys were hard at work on their book talks. They knew what they wanted to do and were ready to tackle the tasks. My eldest twin, Kaelen, informed me that the teacher said that he would only lose about five points and that she wasn’t even upset because this was the first time this had happened to him, he is always on top of his assignments. He said he read his book and felt confident that he would still get an A. He was happy and went off to work on his project.  My other son Jared, was still reading his book but said that it was really taking long so he decided to get another book that he knew he could finish so he could work on his project. They both just regrouped and adapted their situations to accommodate what they needed to do.  They didn’t sit and beat themselves up, like sometimes I do, they just got busy and got it done. When they were ready to work on their visual aids I stopped to help them and we had a lot of fun putting them together. There was a lot of laughter in our home that day.

The next day, the ride to school was the usual, happy event. We chatted about their projects and what they had planned to do this weekend since they couldn’t play any of their digital devices. When they jumped out of the car that morning, there were smiles all around.  “Bye Mom, don’t worry we are going to do great on our book talks. Love you” they said in unison.

As I watched them walk toward the school smiling and chatting, I thought about how I had just re-learned a great lesson on how to be kind to yourself when you mess up from my nine year old twins. Just because you mess up sometimes doesn’t mean that you are a failure. Everyone messes up. Sometimes in the craziness of life, things get forgotten, and it is not the end of the world. Be kind to yourself when you make a mistake. This was just an opportunity to learn.  They teach me things all the time but this lesson I knew I would store up and use again and again.

Have you recently had a teachable moment?  What did you learn? Share it with us in the community.