As a parent, it is our job to make sure that our kids learn the difference of right nd wrong. And that good behavior merits good remarks, while inappropriate behavior would have to be corrected. One of the things I taught my toddler is that she needs to apologize when she did something wrong. Sounds simple enough, right?
At first it was an uphill battle especially when she tends to forget. Toddlers often get carried away with playtime, they tend to disagree who gets which toy and whatnot. Then she showed me that she has already learned how to apologize. I would, every now and then, hear her say "Sowee" when her cousins cry. Or hear her tell of one of her cousins and ask that they say sorry if they did something wrong. Needless to say, I am happy.
Little did I know that it would backfire on me. Over the past few months, her out of nowhere "Sowee" gives me some mini heart attacks. There was once when she kept on saying sorry but I don't know why. I only found out that she was sorry for putting the clothespin on my purse when I went out with some friends. So right in the middle of a dinner with friends, I solved the case of missing clothespin.
Then one time, I found all of her scrungees in our shoe cabinet. each shoe has a scrungee inside. I was like "Oh, that's what she was apologizing for." I would occassionallt find some surprises like the TV remote control in her bookshelf, the crayons in her toy box, her father's passport crayoned beyond recognition, some gift certificates getting crumpled, and so on and so forth. Everytime she says "Sowweee" in her nicest, sweetest voice, I know there's something important that she accidentally misplaced or dropped somewhere she couldn't reach or she might have done something which she realizes she shouldn't have.
Then one day, I wanted to play the guitar. Of course, I would use the guitar pick. I looked for it at the same spot where ai keep it, I couldn't find it. I know my husband misplaced it again. I even told him that he ALWAYS misplaces things after he uses them. I've been married for almost five years and if there's one advice I keep in mind is to not use the words "always" and "never" in an argument. We didn't fight over a petty guitar pick but still, I thought he was the culprit.
Oh, by the way, she was able to save enough money to buy herself her very own drawing table.