Impressions

This weekend we had 2 situations where a single, individual person was able to leave an impression on our little ones.....and these 2 times...not in such a positive way.

1) Ryan had soccer pictures on Saturday. Charlie took him to get his haircut, then Kaitlyn, Anderson and I met them at the field with uniform in hand. I changed Ryan's clothes and we ran over to pictures (the haircut place was behind and so we were about 10 minutes late.) As we are walking up, the CHILD SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER says...."Does anyone else on the Fireball team need individual pictures?" I said, "We do." The photographer said, "okay, you are up." So, Ryan goes to the designated spot to stand. I am filling out the paperwork with the package we want, name, address, blah, blah. The next thing I know, the photographer throws his hands up in the air and says (and I quote...) "THIS KID WILL NOT KEEP HIS EYES OPEN. (not such a nice tone of voice) MOM....CAN YOU PLLLEASSEE HELP ME HERE OR SOMETHING? THIS IS NOT WOOOORRRKING!" Okay, I am sitting there with my mouth hanging open at this point. Are you kidding me? You could not have tried that hard first of all b/c I still have not even finished filling out my name. Secondly, did you need to say something so loudly and in a tone of voice that was NOT very nice??? So guess what....Ryan starts crying. Yep, the photographer was able to succeed from this 1 comment to have our little Ryan in tears. (Does that tell you how rude the photographer was?) Anyway, I give Charlie the paperwork, I run over to Ryan and try to talk to him. Ryan says, "I can't do it Mom, I just can't do it...it is too sunny." I tried to come up with games of how he could look at me and tell me something, etc.....does not matter. At the end of the day...the point is....Ryan did not get his photo taken. He was too upset by this photographer's comment. During his team photo (which he did pose for...which I was surprised)....he could not keep his eyes open and I think it was b/c he was thinking too hard about it.

** Charlie heard all of this and completely agreed with me on the situation. We talked later that night at dinner how incredible it was that 1 person's comments in a negative tone can be picked up by a child and "set a tone" for the rest of the situation.

THEN.....on Sunday:

2) We went apple picking at an apple orchard. It was about 1 hour away, SO beautiful in the mountains...ahhh...it was great!! We bought our "bag" that we were going to fill up and got a map. The guy who sold us our apple bag told us that the "double red delicious" apples were across the street, down to the right of the trail and to use our map. Anyhow....we follow the workers' instructions and the map. The kids are running around, having so much fun picking apples, talking, smiling...when...a ranger comes up to us and said, "Ma'am....what group are you with?" Char and I look at each other and I told him I was not sure what he meant...that we were not with w group. He says, "You can't pick these apples". I said, "Oh, I am sorry, I thought this was the area with the double red delicious apples from the map we got." He said, "Where did you get the map and the bag?" Charlie at this point chimes in and says, "Well, we got the bag and map from the guy who works across the street who told us to come over here". The ranger (or whoever this person was).....says...."Oh, okay..."

That was a weird thing to happen. But, Charlie and I looked at ech other, shrugged our shoulders and kept going. Kaitlyn now would not really pick any more apples. You could tell she was now nervous and anxious....she thought we were in "trouble". God bless her. She started asking us so many questions, "Are we allowed to be here?, are we allowed to do this?, who was that guy? What just happened?" This ranger, who said something to us, again, in not a very nice way (which Char will agree with....) made Kaitlyn nervous and anxious. I gave all the kids an apple to eat on the way back to the car....and Kaitlyn would take a bite, then put it behind her back....she was scared we would get in trouble again. Char and I had to explain to her we bought these apples, and no one would say anything, and we were allowed to eat the apples we bought. But, this 1 person...again, made such an impression on Kaitlyn that she was on pins and needles the rest of the time.

Last night....Char and I talked about the 2 situations, how similar they were, and how these individuals made impressions on Ryan and Kaitlyn. One comment can change a child's point of view or stick with them.....be careful how you say something to your little ones!!! :)