Cole has lately taken to sitting in the basket, rather than the seat, in the cart. This is fine with me until he starts dancing around too close to the end (where the sides aren't as high). As I was pleading with him to sit down and stop stomping on the frozen vegetables and to quit squishing and biting at the loaf of bread, an older woman walked by and said "You're a great mom." As I was continuing to struggle with Cole, I thought "Yeah, maybe I'm not so bad".
The rest of the shopping trip I wondered what would prompt this woman to say this. I had not been displaying any exemplary mothering techniques (just quietly begging my nearly 2 year old to sit down, not screaming like other moms I have witnessed). Then I thought, maybe she was being facetious due to the fact I was allowing my young son to stand in the shopping cart (this made me slightly upset and annoyed). Then I thought, maybe she just likes to tell moms, walking through the grocery store, that they are doing a good job because, perhaps, they don't hear it enough, and every mom needs to hear that she is indeed doing a good job (I decided to go with this theory, as it didn't make me want to wait in the parking lot to have a word with her, lol).
I haven't been able to stop thinking about the possibility that this woman is just out there doing a great service to random stranger-moms by boosting their confidence, especially when it appears they may be struggling. I have been asking myself since if I have told a mom that she is great lately. Not okay, or good, or mediocre, but great!
Have you?
BTW- I found more of Cole's beautiful artwork this morning on the top of my nightstand and the front of our armoire. Thanks to a tip from a friend, I was able to remove all traces with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (why hadn't I thought of that?) and it is almost entirely out of the carpet! Yea!
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