Teachable Moments All Around

I recently had an issue with the fact I feel Camille is exposed to vast amounts of culture at her father's house when she visits him. We have a tv, we watch movies but I keep the tv watching to a minimum and the movies are carefully selected but when she's visiting, I have no say in what she watches or sees.

So, like any daughter close to her mother I called Mom. I'm not very strict but there are certain movies I feel are geared more towards adults than children and I prefer she not watch them. Barnyard would be a good example. When she's at her dad's, there a DVD player in the car, they rent movies, they go see movies, etc. I complained about this to my mom and she point blank told me, "Wake up Jess, he's spending time with her. He's trying to please her and if nothing else this is a teachable moment!" After I realized that my mom had said "teachable moment", I understood a few things.

1. My mom does listen to me when I start talking homeschool.
2. I was allowing teachable moments to pass me by every time Camille came home talking about the latest movie she'd seen.
3. I was IN a teachable moment with my MOTHER!

My mom said that it would be best to find out what movies she is watching, try to watch them while she's gone and be prepared to discuss it with her when she got home. But, but, but...I want to tell C's dad to not let her watch these movies! - Wise mom of mine said, "at what expense? Do you want C's dad to resent you for trying to tell him how to parent? He only has limited time with her and he's doing what he thinks is best." But, but, but... "No buts, Jess- teach her what bad examples are and good examples, discuss them. Teach her to be able to deal with these things and process them. Equip her."

There are moments that a parent can just give you exactly what you need when you least expect it. I called her wanting to rant and rave and get a little sympathy. Instead, I got some sense knocked into me. I'm sure she wishes it would have been this easy when I was younger!

So, are you letting teachable moments pass you by? Is there something your children are exposed to and you haven't addressed it? Maybe you were embarrassed when you let that curse word slip out of your mouth and felt it was best to ignore it? Or maybe you raised your voice today and didn't discuss it with your children after the fact? God gives us these moments where we are weak, and we can turn almost any negative into a positive if we just look at it a little differently. That's what my mamma taught me.