Apologizing Power

Monday was a rough day at the nanny house. I’m convinced that the kids were multiplying. By the time I left at the end of the day, there were nine of them in the house. Normally I don’t have any issue with this. In fact, I enjoy meeting their friends and watching them all play together. However, if you add fighting brothers to a house full of kids, things get out of control pretty quickly.

I was worn out and tired by the time I reached home. I tried to pinpoint why the kids were misbehaving and where exactly the poor attitudes came from. I didn’t allow this to spoil my night and quickly put it to rest. Trying to figure out the minds of kids and teenagers is pointless; they don’t even know what is going on in there.

When Tuesday morning rolled around, I woke up feeling a little under the weather. I decided to just ignore the tickle in my throat and go through my daily routines and to-do lists. I was watching “The Today Show” as I waited for the kids to wake up. The youngest made his way down the stairs and started to head to the basement for a couple episodes of who knows what. We exchanged “good mornings” and “what should we do todays?” Just before he shuffled downstairs, he stopped and said, “And Anna, I’m sorry about yesterday.” I smiled and told him it was okay.

Whether or not his parents told him to apologize does not matter to me. It was a personal choice for him to say that to me. He remembered the day before, and felt compelled to make things right between us. The best part of my relationships with these kids is that they know, no matter what, I care about them. I’d like to think they feel the same way about me. We have formed a special bond over the summer.

The power of an apology – big or small – is huge. Sometimes it’s hard to set our egos aside and admit that we were wrong or behaved poorly. It matters when we take the time to apologize.