Teachable Moments are Priceless

My daughter is almost eight months old and my son is two years old, but I don’t believe that children are ever too young to learn from their environment.

I am a strong believer in “teachable moments.” Maybe it’s the former teacher in me speaking, but I like finding golden opportunities to teach my kids important life lessons.

My little boy and I generally sit together in the early a.m. before my daughter wakes up, and we eat a bowl of cereal together. It’s our special time together before I bring him to preschool. The other day, he decided not to wait for me and to get his own cereal. He got the cereal and the milk, a bowl and a spoon. He sat down at his very own special table and poured himself some cereal. I was in the kitchen to finish making his lunch. When I went in to see him, he had unfortunately poured the entire jug of milk into his little bowl and the inevitable result was spilled milk all over the table and all over himself.

Jewish Concept: Judge your Fellow Favorably

Here was a perfect teachable moment. I could have gotten annoyed at him. I could have raised my voice. But in a case such as this, I knew that it must have been an accident and that he must have lost his grasp on the jug.

In Judaism, there’s an important concept of Dan L’Kaf Zchut, judging your fellow favorably. I said to my little boy, “It’s okay, my sweet boy. This was an accident. You were being an independent big boy, getting your breakfast by yourself. Maybe the milk jug was a little too heavy for you. Maybe next time, call Ema (Mommy) to pour the milk.”

Right after this lesson, I found the little guy unraveling an entire roll of toilet paper, cutting the paper into tiny shreds and throwing it all over the floor. This time I said to him, “Honey, this is NOT an accident. It’s not nice to give Ema more cleaning work.” As soon as I said that, the little guy got down on the floor, picked up all the pieces and threw them in the trash can. I was so proud of him.

Today, I went shopping with my little girl. I was looking for winter hats for her, my boy and myself. We were in a busy store filled with customers. I took two different children’s hats off the rack to have a look. Suddenly the place became so overcrowded and my little girl was getting antsy and hungry, so we left. A few minutes later, I looked on the top of the stroller and saw the two hats. Those hats had come with me out of the store without being paid for. When I realized what had happened, I told my little girl, “Ema made a big mistake. Let’s go fix it.” We went back to the store and I returned the hats to their proper shelves. I told the saleswoman what had happened and apologized profusely. I was grateful that my daughter had witnessed it all.

My daughter is almost eight months old and my son is two years old, but I don’t believe that children are ever too young to learn from their environment. I talk to my kids. I admit and take responsibility when I’ve made a mistake. I look for opportunities to teach them things that might help them in the future.

Teachable moments are priceless.