Last week, I took my children with me to a friend’s church for the mid-week program.

Dinner at 5:30, then to the toddler room and pre-k/K room for care while I attended a class with my friend til 8:00.

Didn’t go as I’d hoped.

Joseph bared his toddler teeth and said “I don’t want to be left in this room with these people!!!!! Where is my mommy!? Where is my sister!!!!?”

By screaming. And screaming. and screaming.

Then, when I “rescued” him, he acted tired for a minute, and then chippered right up and tried to run around the church foyer.

What a turkey.

I gave him a choice: “sit quietly with mommy in class OR play with friends in this (the toddler) room”

Let’s just say – we’re trying again this week and hoping for a better result.

My spectacular wrongness

But my point here is that in my frustration, I snapped at one of the caregivers in the toddler room.

I was waiting for Joseph to get involved in an activity in the room before I waved goodbye.

I know my child, and I know that he will cling to be for dear life and scream bloody murder if I physically hug him or vocally tell him goodbye.

But the caregiver told me “Don’t sneak off. You need to tell him you’re leaving. It makes it worse of you don’t”

My response was a snarky:

“That’s an opinion, not a fact.”

I am not proud of being snarky and evil.

In fact, I hate that I did that, and next time I see her, I will apologize.

But my point is that in making that mistake, I wasn’t doing something terrible.

I was just wrong.

And wrong is OK.

You Got Me Thinking, Shell

Shell at Things I Can’t Say got me thinking with her idea from last week about allowing yourself to be spectacularly wrong.

We’re always constantly trying to be right.

But it’s OK and extremely healthy to be wrong sometimes.

So why not embrace it?

Can you allow yourself to be wrong? Admit you’re wrong?  Accept being wrong?

Because we can’t be right all the time.

And being wrong sometimes is a great blessing.

Being wrong is sometimes spectacular.

How do you feel about the idea of allowing yourself to be spectacularly wrong?

Can you think of a time recently that you were wrong?

How can you embrace that “wrongness” and strengthen your self-awareness?