Miranda Lunt was driving home from her kids' doctor's appointments after having one of those days where absolutely nothing seemed to go right. After admittedly spending a few moments feeling a teensy bit sorry for herself, the mother of two was brought back to reality from an unsuspected source: her toddler daughter [1]. In a post to Facebook, Miranda shared exactly how her kiddo served her up a hearty slice of humble pie [2].
Leave it to a toddler to humble you and put life into perspective. This morning I was annoyed with life. Annoyed that this Winter is too cold for our poorly insulated house and that the below zero temps are freezing the pipes in our house, causing a slew of problems. Financially annoyed that we had to take money out of our emergency savings for groceries this week, let alone for a plumber. Annoyed at the long wait to see the girls' pediatrician this morning. Annoyed that I forgot to bring my gloves with me. Just average, middle-class, 21st century America problems.
Miranda then notes that in the middle of her thinking all these things on the drive home, they saw a man on the side of the road in the "snowy freezing weather, with a sign asking for money." Despite running into a few recent financial setbacks of her own [3], Miranda decided to roll down the window and give the man in need the few stray dollars she found floating around her car. "The entire time [I was thinking] that he'll probably use the money for unhealthy bad habits, that I didn't have enough money for myself this week, let alone extra to give away, and that my husband would probably scold me for rolling my window down for a man that could potentially be dangerous," she wrote. "AND THEN, from the backseat, my 2-and-a-half-year-old asked me what his name was . . . and I felt like such an ass."
Miranda explained how hearing those words from her daughter's mouth instantly changed how she was going about her day. "I was so focused on rolling my window up and down quickly, and driving away, lost in my own selfish thoughts, that I didn't even say 'you're welcome' or look him in the eyes, let alone consider the fact that he had a name," she said. "I made the thought process [about] giving to be about myself, not the fact that this was a man, a person, standing outside begging, regardless of the reason, in weather colder than I would leave my dog outside in for more than a few minutes."
There's nothing like a completely innocent question from your toddler to bring you back down to earth, right? She described how all her reasons for feeling irked quickly dissolved into the background as her little one fired off even more questions:
And there I was in my car, with my heated seats, pissy about forgetting my gloves. Of course, toddlers can't just ask one question, they ask about 50. Her next question was what I gave him and I told her money because he didn't have any. I got a "why?" And I told her so that he can buy dinner with it. And then her sweet little soul says, "I have food at my house. He can come eat some dinner at my home." My toddler humanized this man and this situation in a way that I didn't. The same little girl that cries if you cut her toast wrong [5], innocently put me in my place and reminded me to be giving and kind and to be grateful for what we have. . . I came home this afternoon more mindful and definitely more thankful than when I left this morning. Next time I will remember to get a name.