Curiosity

As you may know from previous postings, I have two sons (8 and 7 years of age) and two older daughters. All parents have wonderful children stories and I periodically share these on this blog and relate it some way to leadership. This is another one.

Earlier in the week, my 8 year old was taking a bath. I was out of town and my wife was "close by" in his room and decided as she was waiting for him to finish, she would polish her toes (red by the way). She accidentally left her nail polish on his desk in the room.

The next evening, he asked to take another bath (those with boys know how they hate to take a bath, so back to back bathings was a very strange occurence). She said "Sure". He then asked "Can I wear my water shoes in the tub?". SIDE NOTE: If you don't know what water shoes are, they are thin slip-ons that prevent slipping at a pool or helps walk on rocks at lakes/rivers/swimming holes (which Austin has many). She said "Sure", and did not ask why the bath nor why the water shoes, although he did wonder.

Here is what happened. After school, he found the nail polish on his desk that his mother had left and decided hey, I wonder what it is like to polish my toe nails, it looks kind of fun. After he did it, he was shocked to find out that it did not come off by rubbing it off. He tried to wash it off at the sink, again, with no luck. So, he thought if he took a bath and soaked, it would wash off (just like his paints he uses to paint pictures). He did not want anyone to see, so the reason about wearing water shoes.

Now, he would have never had said anything if it wasnt that his mother saw the nail polish and noticed the nail polish bottle and some red spots on his desk and went to the bath tub and asked if he had used the nail polish on something (thinking the worse, on walls, etc.). As my wife says, you would have thought a huge burden was lifted when he showed her his toes (my wife has a great way of remaining calm and not laughing, but if it was me, I would have been on the floor laughing (oh, OTFLOL). He explained what happened and he has been trying his hardest to get it off for the past hour but nothing is working. She explained about nail polish remover and they removed the nail polish together. He was extremely relieved. However, he did not want anyone to know, his brother, his dad, etc. Well, I needed a good laugh this week and my wife shared the story with me. My readers can keep a secret, right?

Okay, so why post this story? (1) luckily, he doesnt read the blog (not sure anyone actually does), (2) there are leadership lessons on several fronts, but one in particular. When you make a mistake, do not "hide" the issue if you cannot resolve the issue yourself. This is the worse possible thing that you can do. Yes, even if it is embarrassing, it is best to find someone that you can share with and resolve the issue. It will be a huge relief when you resolve the issue. Oh, and as a leader, follow my wife's example and not mine (as I would have been laughing, where my wife was a true leader by focusing on resolving the issue and not making fun of him).