Shopping for school shoes just recently in 'back to school frenzy', we happened to walk past (and tried to avoid) the Surf Life Savers who had parked themselves in the middle of the shopping centre selling tickets to one of their prize homes. Having just spent a large sum of money buying black school shoes for my four, knowing what was still yet to be spent before the day was done, walked past very determined not to get sucked into buying a ticket. However one Life Saver did catch my eye and motioned me over, rather than go over, with my 4 in tow, made a rather loud, flippant comment that I had no money left after just buying 4 pairs of black school shoes! And kept walking.
Thought nothing more of it.
Until we got home after a very long day of purchasing uniforms, bags, haircuts. As we walk into our kitchen with all the school stuff, Miss astute 13yr old made a comment on how much more money we spent after me telling the Life Savers that I had no more money! My surf-loving 16 year old added insult to injury by saying how much we as a family depend on the Surf Life Savers because we spend alot of time at the beach!
Wow!
My seemingly flippant remark, had been noticed! My children were keeping me accountable! It reminded me again of how the unassumed 'little things' we say often reflect dishonesty vs. honesty. Not such a crime some would say, it's just a little 'white lie'. But how much better an example to my children would it have been if instead of avoiding the Surf Life Savers, I had stopped briefly, given a small donation and thanked them for their incredible volunteer work to not only us as a family, but to the majority of Australians!
Instead I modelled stinginess & dishonesty rather than gratitude & generosity!
Be careful what you say as a parent, it has more impact than we often like to believe! My children teach me to be a better parent!
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