I don’t know if it’s my kids or if it’s all kids. They somehow know EXACTLY how to ignite the guilt gene. The guilt gene is rarely dormant – I feel every time I leave for work or when I’m five minutes late for carpool or when I feed my kids chicken nuggets rather than carrot sticks. It’s ever present. But there are times when they will say something and the guilt gene expands like a balloon. It happened last night. It was bedtime and Luke had done everything possible to delay the inevitable lights out. I became frustrated when he went to the bathroom for the third time claiming that his ears were dirty.
“Luke! I am tired of this – get into bed now!” I said through gritted teeth.
He begrudgingly got into bed and said in his sweetest voice.
“Mommy, I don’t like it when you get mad at me. It makes my heart hurt,”
OUCH!! That comment made my entire body hurt. I gave him fifty more kisses and read him “Good Night Moon” one more time. Come to think of it – that little booger managed to squeeze another 10 minutes out of an already long day all because of an overactive guilt gene!
