This morning when I thought the kids were brushing their teeth, I rounded the corner to find them sitting outside the bathroom with a beach bucket full of water and their bath toy bucket full of water, and they were transferring the water and a bunch of their toys from one container to the other with shovels, for no good reason (in my eyes); and, to top it off, my daughter (the oldest) was squirting hand soap into the two vessels and the dog had started trying to drink from them. It's not the worst thing they've ever done, but it was still pretty annoying, and it wasn't what they were supposed to be doing, and it was happening right when I was about to sit down to eat breakfast.
Instead of yelling like I wanted to, I just calmly said, "If anyone slips and falls or the dog throws up, y'all are gonna be grounded from water." When my daughter laughed at me, I clarified that to mean no pool or beach for a week, then I made the strained, conscious decision to just let them continue; and I went and meditated. I figured I could just reheat the bagel - I hadn't buttered it yet anyhow - and I put my chai tea back in the fridge to wait for me.
Then, after just three minutes of meditating I realized: so what if my kids were doing what they were doing? It sounded like they were having fun. It was just water. On a laminate floor. They know how to soak up water with towels, so I wouldn't even have to be the one to do the clean up. Besides, if they bailed on cleaning up they'd be grounded. There was really nothing to get worked up about. My stomach was rumbling during meditation, so my initial immediate frustration with my kids had probably been exacerbated by that.
Ultimately, no one was hurt. The dog still hasn't vomited. And I feel really proud of myself for making the decision to meditate when I felt like I was in a moment that was a little bit out of control.
Meditation for the win again.
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