Embarrased
ByI knew this was coming. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. We were in McDonalds and Big J pinched a little girl. I know it’s not that Big J is trying to be mean- he is a sweet boy who loves it when there are other kids around to play with. This is just standard 3 year old inappropriate behavior that we’re working on correcting. But, this time his inappropriate behavior happened right in front of the little girl’s mother. She responded by telling him in sort of a nasty tone that he needed to keep his hands to himself. And I was embarrased. More than I should have been, I know, but this was the first time he had been reprimanded by a stranger. Of course, I know it wasn’t a big deal, but it reminded me of possibly the stupidest moment of my adolescence and I suddenly identified with my parents in a whole new way.
I was around 11 years old, and was attending a private Christian school. Because of the way the schoolwork was set up, I had worked far ahead and was asked to help with the kindergarten class now and then. I was feeling rather full of myself, thinking I was so smart. Well, pride goeth before a fall, right? Yeah, I was about to learn that lesson. I took several of the little kids over into the church building to work on flash cards, and as they were heading outside afterwards I hung around in the church building piddling around. Remember those black signboards that all the churches used to have with the little white letters that fit into the grooves? Well, this church had one of those and I had a sudden impulse to rearrange the letters since no one was looking. Won’t that be funny?! And, no one will ever know it was me! (I’ve always been WAY too impulsive) So, I hastily spelled out some other things with the letters, one of which was really not nice and even included a bad word. (I am cringing as I type this. What an idiot.) Well, as it turns out, there was someone looking, and the little tattle-tale ran off and told the principal of the school, who proceeded to call my parents and tell them all about it, even though I assured him that I had been momentarily demon-possessed and could therefore not be held accountable.
I’ve always felt terrible about how my actions that day reflected on my parents, but it wasn’t until that moment at McDonalds, that I got a very, very small taste of how embarrasing it must have been for them.
