They came walking out, her carrying her bright, food color infused ice-cream cone, and him grinning at the thought of what Mama is thinking right now.
She had earned an ice-cream cone in a deal made with Mama to catch up on some school work that fell by the wayside during the crazy month January was. She was smiling ear to ear as she carried her prize out. I, on the other hand couldn’t believe my eyes! FOOD COLOR! EEK! For those who know me this is one of the five no no’s in Neyville. She knows this as did her Daddy so how is it she came out with “that” flavor ice-cream?
As we drove down the road to Wal-Mart, I rambled the entire time about how bad food color is for you and all the different diseases it is linked to. By the time we got out of the car her excitement was gone. “I don’t want to eat this anymore!”, she said. In that moment I wished that I could take back the forest fire of words that destroyed her happiness.
We all went into Wal-Mart, Shelbie and I went one direction with Daddy and Poppet going another. A few minutes later we joined back up and Poppet was ice-creamless. She had made the decision to throw her much deserved cone away. I felt that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that once again I had blown it in my mothering.
As we walked thru the store I reached for her hand and apologized and she sweetly accepted. I couldn’t shake that awful feeling even with the promise of non food color ice-cream at home and the toy she picked out in the clearance isle. It was too late. In that moment of my spewing large facts on the dangers of food color I stole joy from my little girls heart. You can’t replace that. I was so focused on some blue on her tongue that I didn’t see the red flame coming off of mine.
In the big picture a scoop of color should never have taken precedence over my little girls heart. There are no do-overs but once this Mama has learned the hard way about guarding my tongue. Words are so little but yet so big.
We went back today for blue ice-cream because there is something more important than the dangers of food color….relationships.
We walked in and I ordered a scoop of cotton candy ice-cream and Poppet sweetly looked up at me and said, “I would rather not have that kind Mama. I didn’t actually want it yesterday. I told the lady cookie dough please, but she didn’t hear me and gave me a scoop of cotton candy. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.” Ahh, my little girl knows how to guard someone's heart more than her Mama did. My children teach me well.
We enjoyed a lovely, food colorless, cup of cookie dough ice-cream together. Best ice-cream I’ve ever had!
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