More Important Than Earrings.

This morning was typical. Up early to get things done before the kids woke up, baths all around, dressed, breakfast, backpacks and out the door. As I was headed out I grabbed my earrings off the piano. They have been sitting there for two weeks. I took them off while practicing with our son a while back.

The day I left them there I had taken them out of my bag, where I had asked our son to put them. When I took them out the backs were both bent. 90 degree angle bent. I found this really odd. I straightened them out best I could and wore them. Only to leave them on the piano later that day.

In the last two weeks I have worn them a handful of times. Every time I pick them up off the piano (heaven for bid I take them upstairs and put them away) the backs are bent again.

This is what they looked like after I tried to straighten them out, for the 4th time. 

This morning as I found them again, backs bent, it dawned on me. I look at our son and asked if he was the culprit.

He hesitated which was all the answer I needed. I couldn't believe it. This was new. He has never done anything like this before. I know it's not that big of a deal. He is 8 and boys will be boys. He explained he was "just testing to see how strong they were."  Evidently not very strong.

Before we got in the car I explained, "I don't want to see this happen again, not nice to ruin other peoples things, yada yada yada." I was running through the situation in my mind, trying to figure out why he did what he did. Although I stayed calm and didn't voice it, there was some frustration. He could tell.

Then it happened.

I dropped both kids (our son and daughter) off and watched like I always do as they run across the grass and head into school. They made their way slowly this morning, talking to other kids as they went. They got to the front door and stopped right in the middle of all the kids trying to get in. I wondered what they were doing. My first thought, "your going to be late, what are you looking at?"

Then, I realized what they were doing. From my perspective it looked like he was tying her shoe for her. I later found out that our daughter was worried because her sock felt funny, it was "falling down." Our son, who just bent my earrings for the millionth time, had bent over to help his sister with her shoe.

He told her to stop so he could help her fix it.

As I sat there in the car, I couldn't keep back the tears. Lots of tears.

When I picked our daughter up from school she immediately told me how her brother had helped her.

When I picked our son up from school, he told me the story and said he felt bad because he couldn't fix her sock all the way.

I felt bad because this morning I cared about earrings.