a teaching moment

The weather has been pretty mild so far this year. Until yesterday. It was cold and overcast, and then the snow came. It fell all night and into the morning. I do not like snow. At least it's pretty.
We've had a little visitor in our neighborhood. We've seen this fellow a few times over the past month and a half, or so. It is not welcome, and every time Boss sees it he chases it away.
Now for a story about my awesomeness:

On Monday night I ran to the store to pick up some milk. I was all by myself, which was nice, but I was trying to be quick in case little S started to miss me. It was a quiet night, hardly any traffic, the store was basically empty, and I was able to finish and return home quickly. I got to our street, and started to pull along side Boss's car, so that I could park in front of it. That's when my peaceful night turned sour. I'd done this same move so many times before, but this time I guess I was just a bit too close to his car. An immediate pit formed in my stomach when I heard the crash. I finished my parking job quickly and jumped out of the van to survey the damage. The pit in my stomach grew when I saw the driver-side headlight hanging out of place, held on by a wire. I felt so foolish.

I ran straight inside and told Mr. Boss. I thought he was going to be angry with me. I was so nervous to tell him, but I couldn't not tell him. He listened to me as I explained what happened, but he didn't get mad. He was immediately forgiving and reassuring. We went out and surveyed the damage together, we had to take our lantern, because it was dark. He was able to put the headlight back into place, and it worked when he turned his lights on. But there are some repairs that need to be done to his car now, before he can drive it again. Despite his kindness and reassurances, I still felt so stupid for what I had done. I was just going to write a vague story about it, because I was embarrassed to admit to anyone who might read this what I did. But the story wasn't really making sense without the details.

The next day, since he didn't want to chance driving his own car before fixing it, Boss took the van. Later, I went out to clean up the debris from the night before. When I came in with the handful of broken pieces of headlight, C asked me what I was doing. I thought for a moment if I should tell him or not. But the idea came to me that I could use it as a teaching moment, so I told him. I explained to him that I had a little accident and broke dad's car a little bit. I told him how I knew right away that I had messed up, and that, even though I was worried about how he would react, I went and told his dad right away. C was sure that Boss had gotten mad at me, but I was able to explain that he was actually very understanding and forgiving. I hoped that by telling him this, he would realize that we all make mistakes, that even mom can mess up sometimes, but that it's important to admit when you mess up. I wanted him to know that he can tell someone, and that it's important to tell someone if your mistake affects them, even if it seems scary to do so.

I hope that, in the future, my teaching moments don't involve my ego taking such a beating...

photo challenge day 18:
photo challenge day 18: