For years I’ve fastened my children’s seat belt in the car, and not remembered to wear my own.
Protecting those I loved but not caring much about my own.
But it was when they got older, and no longer needed me to fasten it for them, I realized something.
The lesson wasn’t learned.
The children who are now old enough to wear their own belts, refuse to.
They’re quick to point out “but you don’t?!”.
The lesson wasn’t learned.
I now realize that though I belted them in, they would’ve learned the action if I implemented it as well.
They would’ve caught on to what the difference was between being kept safe and being safe.
The importance of practicing safety.
The cruciality of valuing yourself enough to invest in the brief moments it takes to secure yourself too.
It is now when I am no longer a mother of very young ones, no longer in the thickness of routine and schedules, that I realize the value of practice and how they lead to lessons.
True, teenage angst loves to go against the grain and rebel even if it had seen Mom do it a thousand times.
But they still would know the difference between the right thing to do and the wrong, because they would’ve learned the lesson.
As for the children who never saw it, they’ll learn it eventually- they won’t get their license if they don’t.
Hopefully, implement it before they become parents themselves.
With their children strapped into the most expensive and extensively tested seat, watching the lesson from the rear view mirror.
And if they chose not to, if they chose to continue what they had seen or not seen as children themselves, they will continue the cycle of behavior they were a product of.
But, if they take the time to secure themselves as well, they will have broken the pattern and changed the course for the generations to come.
The lesson will have been learned.
Seatbelts, lessons, and safety.
Behaviors, patterns, and healing.
-Tumkeen, Writer
Tumkeen, Writer+Poet 