Let's promise
I promise.I promise that if your sweet, sweet seven-year-old should happen to become lost from you in a large place... let's just say Home Depot on Brodie, for example... and he's totally frantic, with big tears running down his face as though his sneakers just felt the biggest shift of security in his short life... I promise to not only casually approach him and say "hey, dude, what's up? You okay? where's your mama? did you guys get separated?" but I promise to respect his out-of-control fear, his need to create a distance from me (who is, in every sense of the word, a stranger that should be dealt with cautiously, as he's been taught), and to quickly notify the employees who can and should make an announcement to said kid's parent to come find him. I promise not to try to make him talk about something happy, or to tell him that he shouldn't cry or feel scared, but I will tell him that these things happen all the time -- to all of us over a lifetime -- and that his parent would NEVER EVER drive away and leave him at a store without knowing he wasn't in the car. It just doesn't happen. I promise to stay with him until his parent shows up, even if the 20-something employee tells me that it's totally fine to go away, that she'll watch him, as she turns her back on this boy and talks about her night out the previous night to pals. I promise to wait there until I SEE his parent walking toward us, quickly, frantically.
I promise to do all of the above no matter what, but it would be totally awesome if you would promise to me that when you come to collect your lost baby with tears still on his cheeks, you will try extra, extra hard to put aside your natural anger and fear that he went missing and, at the very least, HUG that child TIGHTLY, touch him, physically pull him in, and tell him that it's all going to be okay and that yes, you felt very scared and involved -- which can sometimes spark anger -- but that THE most important thing is that he is safe and found and always loved. Promise that you can do just that small thing, please.
okay?
posted by Kim @ 7:38 PM
2 Comments:
i swear on all that is holy. you have my word.
:) thanks, mama
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