Regret weighs a person down.  Regret, for the most part, cannot be undone.  It reminds us of things we should have done, but didn’t.  We had the opportunity in front of us, but let it slip away.  Regret can haunt us if we dwell on all the “what ifs” in life.  It will stop us from moving forward if we carry regret with us like that proverbial monkey on our back.

Certainly all of us have a certain number of regrets in our life.  I have a long list, some I won’t share here for obvious reasons, but God is helping me deal with all of them.  As a parent, there were times when I have said the wrong thing, or did the wrong thing (sometimes with the best of intentions).  Now, when my kids are young adults, they have no problem reminding me about the times I really messed up when they were younger.  Luckily, most of my mistakes can be laughed off by my kids and I have become the brunt of some of their more good-natured teasing throughout the years.  So we mostly laugh off some of my more comical and less-than-stellar parenting skills and my kids seem to have turned out to be fairly well-adjusted human beings all things considered.

I know that my latest parenting faux pas will likely be remembered for years to come and will no doubt go down in my son’s memory record as the “worst Christmas present Mom ever got for me”.  I had no idea that putting a picture of my son on a t-shirt would elicit such a backlash of criticism.  Apparently, according to my family, one does not put pictures of oneself on ones t-shirt and then actually wear said t-shirt…ever!

I thought it was a great idea at the time.  I found a funny picture of my son, had it printed on a t-shirt thinking he would think it funny and unique.  He was more than a little mortified.  “When would I ever wear this, Mom?” he demanded.

“I don’t know, maybe to work?”

Yeah, it got the same reaction from my son…”Are you serious, Mom?  I can’t wear a picture of “me” to work!”

All my other suggestions like wearing it to church, or around friends, or even use the t-shirt as a rag to polish his car, were met with the same “are you kidding me?” looks.  Lesson learned.  Do not put pictures of your children on t-shirts and expect them to wear the t-shirt…I wonder if that goes for grandchildren too?