Confessions from this Life at Home Mom!

I have a confession to make. It's really quite embarrassing. I do it at home. I've even done it at someone else's house. Here it is: I regularly back up over things as I'm pulling out of a driveway. It's horrible. Do you know you can't see toys or bikes in the rear-view mirror when they're parked directly behind a mini-van? It's true! Did you also know that underneath the black exterior on a Radio Flyer tricycle's wheels are white wheels? I know this because I've backed over one, cracking the black wheel covers. We now own a red tricycle with three white wheels. I've also backed over my oldest son's bike helmet. I'm just lucky he wasn't wearing it when I ran it over. Last night I backed into our toddler's four wheeler. My Mom and Dad bought it for our oldest when he was one. Now he's almost 8. I'm not sure how it's lasted this long!

They're setting me up for failure!  Like those white trike tires?

Before the four-wheeler incident I was leaving a friend's house. We had just gotten done saying our good-byes. We were waving from the van windows, slowly backing down the drive-way when I heard that tell-tale crunch, followed by an eerie metal sound like we were dragging something. I pulled forward slightly, only to realize we were still dragging something. It was stuck. I was mortified. I hesitantly got out of the van and walked around to the back to realize I had wedged someone's little pink bike up under my rear bumper. It came out with a good hard jerk and, luckily, the only harm done was a slightly crooked training wheel.

I've learned something. It doesn't mean I won't back into something every once in a while, but I'm getting better. I've learned that looking in the rear view mirror does me no good. In driving and in life. I must deliberately clear away the things behind me (preferably before I've gotten everyone in the van and buckled and I've thrown my purse in, buckled myself and started the van).

In my life I must decide every day to clear the things that are behind me out of my way and move forward. It's a conscious decision, done in preparation of going somewhere. In fact, we can't move forward unless we've cleared what's behind (unless we “never really liked that toy anyway”).