Zoo Lessons

Day 2.
Friday, January 2nd, 2009

We are still in Colorado and we went to the Denver Zoo tonight for Zoo lights with the family. It was really cool where you get to walk around the zoo at night and they have millions of christmas lights up all around, many of them animal-themed. We had a great time until it started to get late and both girls (my sister's daughter Anya is Dylan's age) started melting down (for different reasons, but still - it was time to go).

I was in the bathroom with Dylan and after she went potty, she washed her hands and needed to dry them. The line was out the door, and we just were trying to get out of there fast. So I grabbed her a paper towel and semi-pushed her out the door, as she saw the automatic air dryer and decided she had to use that instead. So, she lost it and started yelling/half-crying as I dragged her out of the bathroom. All the other moms shot me daggers and I realized, "Yes, I'm THAT mom."

We got outside and I was just so annoyed. Annoyed at her for making a huge deal out of drying your hands. But that's just it - why couldn't she have just dried her hands with the air dryer instead of the paper towel? Who am I to force her to choose the less green option? Would it really have ruined our zoo schedule to wait 8 more seconds?

I am grateful for being able to admit my mistakes in my parenting.

She still got her special snack (I was going to withhold it until I realized what a stupid, unrelated consequence that was). And I got a good dose of humility.