The promise that did not materialise...
Because of all the travelling that I do for my job during the week, my wife and I agreed that I will pickup our son once a week from the daycare (crash).Before I go on I would like to state that I rarely make promises. With making promises comes great responsibility. Some of us are able to bare that responsibilities and some of us are not able to. That is just how it is in life.It was that day that I had to pickup our son from the daycare (crash). In the morning I told my wife that I have to be at the company's HQ, about a 2 ours drive from home, but I will make it to pickup Thiago. That morning I told Thiago that I will pick him up and as always he was excited about the fact that daddy is picking him up. "Are you picking me up with daddy's car?", and my answer was "yes".It got late on my way to pick Thiago up due to traffic jams. When there is a little bit of precipitation all drivers drive slower on the highways. I was not going to make it. I called my wife to tell her that I was not going to make it to pick Thiago up when I promised him that I will. "Yes you did", said my wife but she tried to make it better by saying; "It's due to traffic and there is little you are able to do about that".She was right! But, there is this feeling that I felt that I hope never to feel again. That feeling of letting your son down. It almost felt that I did a terrible thing and that I have to be punished for it. That feeling stayed with me for a couple of days.I was 20 minutes from home when the phone rings. It was my wife. Actually it was Thiago on the phone. His first words were; "Are you stuck in Traffic, dad?" (This from a 3 year old child). I started to explain why I could not pick him up and his response was "I will see you when we get home, dad!"Parents who make promises to their kids is very common. Whether they keep their promise or not, that is something that I can not talk/write about. I can only say that when I as a father was not able to keep this simple promise, it made me feel very sad.Luckily, my wife and son made me see that it was not a big deal.Making a promise is a big deal to me. Specially to my family.
