February 28, 2003 - Friday
Things were a bit hectic for me last week on Friday. I had to bring the boys home with me after I got Jeremy for a few minutes and let them play in the living room while I dealt with some FedEx shipping. I promised that we'd take the car to the carwash again and for the most part Harry waited very patiently. Near the end of my work I promised Harry that we'd go right after I did one more thing. I did and we started to get ready. Then I remembered one more thing I had to do. It would take a couple more minutes and I apologized to Harry for being wrong before. There were a couple other minor things I did on the way out that were a little amiss, too - for example, I had to reopen one of the packages and tape it up again - but we finally got going. We gotten about half way to the carwash, a roughly five minute ride total, when Harry noticed that I had forgotten to buckle his carseat belt and insisted that I stopped and buckle him in. I did and I apologized to Harry saying something like, "oh my, Harry, I'm making lots of mistakes today."

Two things occurred to me as I said that. First, Harry might as well start learning right away that his dad isn't always right and/or perfect. And second, knowing that his dad sometimes makes mistakes might be comforting in some way for his own self-confidence. And, I think it made an impression. Today, for I think the third or fourth time since, Harry has brought up my ability to make mistakes, not in a troubled or aggressive way, but with a little twinkle in his eye or grin on his face. Yes, we all make mistakes and most of the time we can laugh about them. It's a great lesson for as long and as much as it can stick. Perhaps I'll have occasion to re-enforce it in the future.

I don't know whether this is the reason or has anything to do with it, but Harry has been remarkably polite and respectful just about all week.


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