@galenkp posted a quote today by Lou Holtz “ Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it” this quote really got me thinking about things that I regret and while there's many things in my life that I regret that I could talk about that are deeply personal to me this probably isn't the venue for me to share any of those however I do have a daily regret that came back and bit me this evening. it's not a regret that makes me angry and it's not a regret that normally affects my daily life much.
Some of you may already know that my kids are not just fond of Legos. They are deeply passionate and obsessed with them. My five-year-old can spend hours building incredible Lego projects, working on extensive sets, and creating his own versions of things he’s seen in pictures.
But what’s the most common issue with having lots of Legos and little kids? It’s not cleaning up. We’ve accumulated thousands of Legos over the past two and a half years since my oldest started playing with them. We usually stay on top of organizing them, and I’ve even posted about our Lego organization system. However, the truth is that we don’t always keep up with it consistently.
When we don’t keep up with it, our house turns into an absolute war zone. The living and family rooms get littered with tiny Lego pieces that disappear into the rug. Upstairs, the bedrooms, both the youngest and oldest, fill up with Lego train tracks. Even the garage becomes overwhelmed with Legos from their “sink or float” game, where they build boats and test whether they sink or float. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but it creates quite a mess!
And you know, I don’t actually have a picture of when it gets really bad. Maybe I just don’t want proof of how messy it can get sometimes. Some people can be really judgmental about that!
You might think my regret is about not keeping up with the cleaning, but that’s not it. Honestly, I don’t mind the mess much. When I ask my kids to clean up, they usually do it quickly. Plus, leaving the Legos out lets them pick up right where they left off the next day. My regret actually concerns the choices I make when the house is in disarray like this.
I’ll march upstairs to get ready for bed, turn off all the lights, and walk to my bedroom as if the floors are spotless. But you can guess what happens. I end up stepping on Legos. Usually, it’s just a minor inconvenience and it hurts a bit, but yesterday was different. I stepped on a Lego train track, specifically one with a small lever on top that switches which track the train travels on. Of course, this piece was facing straight up, and I stepped right on it with my heel.
Sorry about the view of my feet, but that small bruise in the middle of my foot doesn’t look like it would hurt much. However, it's raised and quite noticeable, especially since I’m on my feet most of the day. It’s been aching all day and has been quite a nuisance. Since this is my right foot and I also have an injury on my left knee, the compensation between the two has made both areas hurt even more.
And that’s not the only time I’ve gotten hurt because of Legos. About a year ago, my kid and I were racing around the house, playing tag. When I turned a corner, I stepped on a Lego. Ironically, it didn’t hurt much at the time, but because I was running, my foot slid out from under me, and I ended up falling into the console table. I hit it with my side, which left a nice bruise on my stomach.
So, yeah, that's a frequent regret of mine. When I don’t have my kids clean up their Legos, and I don’t pay enough attention to the mess. It’s really on me; I could ask them to clean up, which they’d do gladly, or I could be more mindful and safer. For some reason, though, that’s been really hard for me.
So, what regrets do you have? Do you have any small regrets like mine, things that could be easily fixed if you just took an extra 10 seconds? I’m not asking anyone to share deeper, more personal regrets, but if you want to, that’s entirely up to you.