Life Lesson - All's Well That Ends Well

Do you ever have things happen to you, that you know the only reason it happened was because it was meant to be a teaching moment?  A life-lesson, learned by me and my kids simultaneously?  I have those.  Sometimes I cherish them.  Sometimes I don't.

Yesterday, the kids and I piled into the van after a trip to the park to pick Tyler up at the pizza place.  He was ordering our dinner and we were going to eat quickly so we could get to the school for the kid's Open House that evening.  We're leaving for Washington next week so this week has been crazy busy getting stuff ready.  I noticed that we had library books due too, and I thought the library closed at 5:00, so I said to myself, "Self, we better drop the library books off first before we pick up Tyler so we don't get charged any late fees for a Dora Wii game that never got played with."  So myself and 3 kids headed to the library first.  Tyler can wait for 2 minutes.  I run the books up to the library, to discover that they're actually open until 8:00pm, and back to the van to go get Tyler.

As I'm buckling my seatbelt to get going my phone rings.  It's Tyler, wondering where we are.  And here comes the life lesson:

I backed out of my parking stall WHILE on the cell-phone with Tyler.  As I am in the middle of this sentence: "Sorry hun, just dropping off library books, we'll be right there." I hear a BUMP and the van shakes from hitting something.  Not just something, but someone's van.  DANG IT!!  What I actually said was, "Shoot!  I gotta go!" and promptly hung up on Tyler.  Pulled back into my spot and got out to check out damage.

Nothing.

I couldn't see a scratch.  But, you never know, so I run frantically into the library to see if the van I hit behind me belonged to someone in there.  Then, I see a guy walking toward the van with his dog (the library shares a parking lot with the dog run), so I race outside to catch up to him.  He's already in the drivers seat when I get there...so I have to knock on his window.

"Hi!  I accidentally bumped your van.  I'm really sorry.  I didn't see any damage, but i wanted to let you know."

He gets out, looks at the front of his van and said, "Looks fine to me."

"Really?!  I feel so bad!"

"Don't feel bad.  It happens all the time."  (Although I was reassured by his kindness, and thanked him profusely I thought to myself, 'this doesn't happen to ME all the time...does it happen to YOU?"  Not the point.)

He drives away.  PHEW!!  My hands are shaking from adrenaline.

I turn to the kids and say, "THIS IS WHY YOU NEVER NEVER NEVER TALK ON A CELL PHONE WHEN YOU'RE DRIVING!"  Lucy's eyes are big and she nods.  I think she gets it.

Then she asks me, "Are you going to tell dad?"

"yes."

"I don't know if that's a good idea.  He might get you in trouble."  This bothers me on two levels, the first, which I deal with immediately:

"Lucy, do we hide things from people when we make a mistake just because we're worried about getting in trouble? Or is it better to tell the truth?"

"Tell the truth."

"Right-o"

This bothers me on another level because she seems to have forgotten that I am the boss.  I don't get in trouble from Dad.  Who does she think is in charge around here?  To be honest, I was a little worried about getting in trouble from Dad.

I didn't have much choice though, because as soon as Dad climbed into the van, Logan yelled, "Mom hit the van!"

All's well that ends well.  Wish I didn't need to have that adrenaline rush to remind me not to talk and drive at the same time...or to teach my kids to always tell the truth.  If it works, I'll take it though.