Gulf Coast Family

May is typically a month to focus on mothers. But if you’ll forgive me, my husband gave me a “daddy story” this week that simply has to be shared!

“They also learned a lesson about how important it is to ‘look before you leap.’”

Rodney likes to be spontaneous and always looks for ways to have fun with our kids. That makes him a good dad, but also gets him into trouble once in a while. This incident was definitely one of those times that got him into trouble.

He was picking up my daughters from school one day last week, as usual. With all of the rain we’ve been having, the campus was full of mud puddles, so my 8-year-old, Hanna, was having fun splashing in them. She jumped softly into the edge of one big puddle, making a small splash.

Rodney decided it was time to correct her - “Hanna, that’s not how you do it.” Then he proceeded to jump high into the air and right into the middle of that big puddle.

I wasn’t there, but I understand the resulting splash was impressive. But what Rodney had not noticed was that on the sidewalk right next to the puddle, one of the preschool teachers was pushing a stroller with not one, not two, but eight one-year-olds in it. Most of the babies were shielded by a large awning over the stroller, but two or three of them, along with their poor teacher were completely drenched with muddy water.

My daughter has been having fun ever since demonstrating how profusely he apologized to that teacher, and I imagine he wished he could just melt right into that puddle (if I’d been there, I would have wanted to disappear right with him). If he didn’t give my daughters a good example of how to conduct themselves in public that day, at least he gave them an example they’ll never forgot of how to issue a sincere apology.

The next day, the preschool director caught him and let him know that his little stunt had been witnessed by others as well. “I was standing with [the elementary principal and the administrator of the school], and I just watched you and said ‘I can’t believe it; Mr. Beck just splashed our babies!’” So much for hoping nobody besides the teacher had noticed. The babies are too young to tell, but when you do something like that in front of the principal and the administrator, your shenanigans are going to be broadcast!

If there’s a bright spot in this story, it’s that my girls are certain to look like little angels at school compared to their dad! They also learned a lesson about how important it is to “look before you leap.” I hope their dad learned that lesson too, but only time will tell where he’s concerned.

Until next time,

Jennifer