Even lousy parents get second chances

Benjamin had his fourth grade program on Thursday morning. He brought home the note to tell David and I about it a month ago. The note sat on the fridge for a month. And come Thursday morning, both David and I forgot all about it.

The really sad part is that I had no plans on Thursday. It's not as if I couldn't have gone. I did run one errand, but it turned out to take a lot less time than I originally thought. And the rest of the day Ella and I stayed at home and played.

It wasn't Benjamin who informed us of our mistake: it was Joshua! And after that, we felt terrible. Benjamin told us, "I looked and looked for you, but you didn't come." He looked before the program started. He looked during his line. He looked during all the songs. He looked right up until the end.

David and I were lousy parents that day.

Thankfully, Benjamin is a very forgiving kid. He decided the best way for us to make it up to him would be to take him out for a shake and let him tell us all about the program. This seemed like a great idea to David and me, and so last night, after I got home from rehearsal, we took Benjamin to Sconecutter and got him not only a shake, but monster spicy fries as well.

He told us his line, a couple of times. He sang part of one of the songs. We talked about school and friends and girlfriends and homework and castles and kings. He learned some secret vacation plans. We know he can keep a secret. It takes so little to make this child happy, why don't we do it more often?