Teachable Moment

Earlier this month, Aaron committed an unfortunate trifecta of transgressions.  First, he took the family iPad into the bathroom in order to sneak-watch some cartoons, even though he knew he wasn't allowed to have "screen time" that day.  Second, he dropped and broke said iPad, even though he had done this before and was under strict orders to be more careful with expensive electronics.  Third, he didn't tell us first chance he had, and instead we had to hear it from the nanny first and then extract the story from him later. 

Amy and I took our time unwinding this episode and making sure Aaron got the lesson.  I mean, there's a lot.  Obviously, there's a lot worse things you can sneak-watch outside of parental supervision than some cartoons.  And, it's never good to make a mistake, get reprimanded, and then make the same mistake not long after.  Perhaps worst of all is not knowing that your first impulse when you've done wrong is to fess up.

Hopefully our interactions with Aaron in the moment and over the subsequent few days, and the various punishments we've piled on him, will help him to take away some life lessons and instill in him a sense of what we expect from him.  It's sobering to think of just how incredibly important these teaching moments are, and what kinds of indelible impressions we can leave on our kids if we handle them correctly or poorly.  Lord, grant us wisdom.