Lesson for the Day: Fixing Your Mistakes

Yesterday at the Little Pumpkins Dash, Scarlett received a medal for her efforts. She was thrilled! 

On the way back to the car after the race I told her how lucky she was to get a medal,  that even I didn't get one. She replied very sincerely, "It's OK, Mommy. I'm sorry you didn't get a medal. Maybe next time?  You can have mine if you want."  An older couple walking by her heard what she said and chuckled to themselves. It was very sweet.

Then we got home and couldn't find the medal.

We frantically checked the car and emptied out the bag that we were sure it had been placed in. Then it dawned on me - in my haste to find my bib at the start of the race I had dumped most of the bag's contents on the ground. The medal most likely was left in the grass. Ugh.

Since it was my fault that the medal was left behind,  I quickly shot off an email to the race organizer and hoped that in the meantime, Scarlett didn't notice it was missing.

Luckily, he got back to me that there were 10 medals left and I could have one if I could make it in to pick it up. I thanked him and quickly made my way down to get it.

Success is mine!  I have the replacement medal! 

Now, if my daughter had lost her medal I wouldn't have jumped through as many hoops as I did to get another one, but since it was my mistake I had to make an effort to fix it.

And I'll be sure to let her know what I did so she can learn how to be responsible for her mistakes too.

What lessons has life taught you lately?