Aunt Becky Cheated and Broke My Heart(ie)

Unless you’ve been avoiding social media or the news lately, then you’ve probably heard about the latest Hollywood scandal involving college admissions and deep-pocketed celebrities. Normally when “breaking news” like that hits the airwaves I can generally roll my eyes and move along, but not this time. No, you see, this time it involved the people you’d least expect. Imagine the “goody-toe-shoes” of your elementary school class, if you will, cheating on a term paper. Shocking, right!?

And disappointing too. 

Growing up, I genuinely admired Lori Loughlin. Every week I would settle in to watch Full House on TGIF and pretend as if my baby dolls were just like the twin boys she and Uncle Jessie had on the show. Even as of late, I became a full-fledged “heartie” admiring her work on When Calls the Heart while appreciating the fact that she was a seemingly humble and reserved actress who typically stayed under the radar of celebrity drama. As far as I could tell, she lived a beautiful life enjoying a profession that she loved while still maintaining a wonderful family life. 

While I absolutely do not condone her behavior and choices that she has been accused of making, I can’t help but wonder what lead her to make those decisions. As moms, we all want the absolute best for our children. We want to see them succeed, thrive, and live out their dreams. Sometimes, we’re willing to do whatever it takes to see those dreams become reality. But what if “whatever it takes” goes just a bit too far? 

That thin line of moral objectivity can become so blurred when it comes to the people we love. One little choice to “help” her children get into college by cheating the system inevitably lead to the world as they know it crashing down around them. How often are we tempted, as mothers, to do that in our own lives? Maybe not to this same extreme, but what about when it comes to little things? Maybe we decide to finish their homework for them because they’re taking too long and we just want to move on with the night. Perhaps they didn’t place as highly in a competition as we thought they should have, so we demanded a recount causing our kids to miss an opportunity to learn how to lose with grace.

[quote]That thin line of moral objectivity can become so blurred when it comes to the people we love.[/quote]

I think it’s time to learn one final lesson from Aunt Becky: instead of teaching our kids to cheat their way through life, let’s equip them with the tools they need to both succeed and pick themselves up and try again when they fail.

Let’s face it: they will fail, but it’s through those failures that they might find their greatest success.