Only a parent can truly understand the frustration of driving thirty minutes to get to a random festival with fun activities and distractions you hope to enjoy for several hours, only to discover your nearly nine-year-old, a third grader, has forgotten to wear…shoes!?
You could enter any clothing item you can imagine here and it will be nearly, if not more, frustrating than what my little one had forgotten. However, there’s a special sort of torture when you are getting out of your car in a public area that is littered with cigarette butts, and who knows how much glass, to discover your eldest has left home without one of the most basic clothing items imaginable.
“What are we supposed to do?,” I demanded. “I can’t carry you around the whole time. You could step on glass or who knows what else if you walk around barefooted. Look around the car. See what we can find. Surely we have a pair floating around here between the rotten apples and seaweed snack packages. If not, we are turning around and going home!”
Luckily, in that instance, there was a fuzzy pair of totally impractical, backless slippers available, and with much frustrated huffing and dire warnings about any complaints of foot discomfort, we tromped and fluffed our way into the festival.
Now, a few weeks later, I find myself at a cabin in the middle of nowhere having a great morning as we prepare for a hike with our Ohio family who is visiting…
Does anyone see where this is going?
Yes…it’s going there. We’ve apparently managed to leave not only sweat behind during our gymnastics practice last night, but also our only pair of shoes for the trip…
So, what does a mom who is desperately trying not to go mental on her child do? Calls her mother, begs for help, and arranges a shoe drop off at the base of the hiking trail.
But as we’ve had two incidents in a month of forgetfulness for our poor feet, I am going to have to start preparations for our next shoe adventure. One idea includes having shoes in the car, hidden away for when we forget. Another idea is to have a shoe check at the door of every building we leave in case we managed to shuck them between entrance and exit.
This is my hope,
This is my prayer,
Please Dear Lord, help me have patience and teach my children well.
