Speaking of pop culture (and in light of my last real post in which I made myself sound like Mom of the Year, when in fact that story was really supposed to be about how I wanted to be the world’s oldest tattle tale), I thought I’d share with you another way to build teachable moments into a family’s structure.

The other day the girls and I were running errands. On the list was a stop at Blockbuster, where I needed to return a movie and quickly check to see if they had another one in. I parked right in front of the store, told the girls I’d be right back, and gave my standard, “Do not unlock this door for any reason, I can see you from the store, and I will be RIGHT BACK” lecture.

Everything was as it should be: I could see them from the store, I was only in there for maybe three minutes, and I came RIGHT BACK. As I unlocked the van and started the ignition, Maddie pointed to the larger than life movie poster plastered directly in front of us and asked what “knocked up” meant.

I looked up at the poster, then immediately hung my head. What kind of mom parks her kids right in front of an ad like that AND DOESN’T EVEN NOTICE?

I raise my hand.

After I apologized for parking them right in front of an inappropriate advertisement, we did have a perfect moment for talking about how God’s best plan for babies is to be born to moms and dads who both love each other and commit to each other in marriage, but that it doesn’t always work out that way. And then I asked, “Do you all want cookies or popsicles when we get home?” Classic redirection by sugar.

And thus concludes this episode of Teachable Moments with Megan. Tune in next week to hear Megan explain why the Barenaked Ladies are neither barenaked nor ladies…