Like Mother, Like Daughter...

Okay, this is for all you mothers out there! I’ve been a mother for a little over seven years now and except for the occasional “Mommy that girl isn’t modest.” or “Mommy why is his hair that color?” moments I haven’t ever truly been mortified by something one of my girls has said or done. Well that was until this past Friday morning; ironically enough the Friday before Mother’s Day. Could this have been my mother’s day surprise?

Let me set the scene for you. It is 7:15 a.m. and I am sitting in the car pool line waiting anxiously to drop Taylor off early at school. I had to be in Bartow, the city where I work, at 8:30 a.m. to baby sit the grandchildren of a co-worker of mine who unexpectedly passed away over the weekend. Friday was her funeral service. It was one of those I CAN NOT BE LATE moments.

Anyway, without boring you too much, I had been trying to no avail all week to schedule an appointment to meet with Taylor’s principal (another story for another day). As I’m sitting in the car pool lane the principal’s secretary comes to the van and asks if I have time NOW (of all times) to meet with the principal. I said yes, but that it would have to be brief as I HAD to get to work. I quickly parked the car and we headed into the office. Taylor sat in the lobby with the secretary while I proceeded to the principal’s office with Kaitlyn, yes my little, adorable, does no wrong because she’s so dang cute, Kaitlyn!

Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve only been to the principal’s office once in my entire life and even then it wasn’t my fault. Why is it that they always put the principal’s office at the end of a long hall? I’ve come to the realization that regardless of the reason, no matter who did what and even if you aren’t in trouble that walk seems like eternity. Even the most innocent of innocent will begin to think they're guilty.

It wasn’t long after we had sat down when the principal told Kaitlyn she could play with a teddy bear sitting on a stool in the corner. I declined, but the principal insisted. Oddly enough Kaitlyn was quite content with the bear and, of course, my blackberry. She was being so good and I was amazed. Very seldom do I have those moments when I feel validated that I am a good mother, but today was one of those moments. I was proactively discussing my oldest child’s education while my youngest child sat quietly playing.

Then in a blink of an eye my moment was gone and it happened…out of the corner of my eye I saw Kaitlyn raise the bear to her mouth. You should have seen the principal’s face. We both jolted to our feet, but it was too late. The damage was already done. She had just used her teeth to remove the tag from the bear and I was just praying it wasn’t a collector’s item that needed the tag to retain its value. I was almost speechless. Needing to leave now more that ever all I could do was apologize and offer to purchase a new bear. Then the question that I will never forget… “Where on EARTH did she learn to use her teeth to cut things?” My face went about a thousand shades of red and all I could do was shrug my shoulders, no longer innocent. I tried to salvage the end of the meeting, thanked her for her time and couldn’t leave fast enough. As we left the school and headed to drop Kaitlyn off for her play date with her friend Reef all I could think was “Like mother, like daughter! Oh how they are watching me!”