Trust

Today I experienced the horror of my 20 month-old daughter being temporarily terrified of my ‘almost 5 year-old’ son was being super naughty this morning and was blatantly disobeying his mother and I, so I grabbed his hand and slapped it.
My daughter- not knowing that her brother was in trouble, and not understanding what it means to get a spanking sawe slap his hand.
Her eyes grew large and welled up with tears. Her lower lip puckered out and quivered. She began to scream and cry,” Daddy” over and over again.
She was immediately affraid of me. She thought inhad just hit her brother for no reason and that she was next.
It was gut wrenching and it broke my heart to see my daughter think of me in this way.
I have always been here for her protection and have never done anything to harm her, but with one action and a misperception of it- her trust in me was- at least momentarily- gone.
My wife and I tried to explain to her what had happened and I tried to comfort her, but it honestly took hours for her to warm up to me. It was awful.
There’s not a real clear moral to this story, however, it did bring to mind the fact that: Trust is built over a long period of time, but with one action (whether intended for evil or simply perceived as such) it can be completely destroyed.
So think about the way you potray youself to others. Your trustworthyness depends on it!