I had a hard morning this week. My oldest had a huge meltdown before we were supposed to go on a walk. He was not calming down so we went back into the living room. By this time I didn’t want to do much but just stay on the floor, but I knew it was important to get some fresh air.
We tried again to get ready for a walk, but this time my daughter was having a meltdown because her coat was too tight, even though it wasn’t. She took it off two times before I told her that she wouldn’t be able to have a cheese stick on the walk if she didn’t wear a coat.
We live in Manitoba. It gets cold in the winter, so it is important to get all the winter gear out when October hits. However, anyone that has children knows that it is hard to have kids keep on hats especially. I keep hats in the stroller for those that choose not to wear them, but I am not going to fight them to put them on. If they get cold they will ask for it. My youngest has a hard time, but I put him in his snow suit and a jacket and had blankets on him on the walk.
We were finally able to go out. I was so happy that we finally were able to go out. As we were walking I could hear someone walking in back of me. I wanted to be nice so I pulled to the side expecting her to go on her way. However, she stopped and asked if they had hats and continued to say that it was cold. I thought to myself “How dare this woman say that? She has no idea the struggle I had just dealt with to get out of the house.” I told her in an annoyed voice that maybe she would like to put hats on my kids. I continued to say to her that it is hard to keep hats on kids. She didn’t even acknowledge the positives that my kids had coats and shoes on. I was so annoyed and frustrated with her. As I continued to walk I just thought of how much I hate where we live and I don’t think I will ever be at peace with where we live. I hate the cold, the snow, the fact that I feel judged by people here, I don’t like the health care system here, the streets are small and a nuisance to drive on… the list just goes on and on.
As I was walking and complaining to myself, all of a sudden I was going up a little hill on the sidewalk and my stroller got stuck. I couldn’t figure out why it was stuck. There didn’t seem to be a reason why it should be. All of a sudden a guy ran across the street to help me. It was very nice of him and was very surprising. I am not sure where he came from, but as I thought about it later I think my stroller was meant to get stuck. So that I could have a positive in my day and be reminded of the good in people.
Heavenly Father always has my back and wants me to be happy. I feel like that little moment was his way to help me not to hold a grudge and to help me see the positive in that day. I still have my feelings about where we live and I think it will take a lot of work for me to be ok with where we live. It will take baby steps, but I was also reminded to not judge people because you don’t know what they are or have been dealing with and to also be kind to others.