Decisions, Decisions

I am not a great decision maker.  

For even the smallest decisions, I tend to pour over 'pros' and 'cons'.  I solicit advice and consider every possible detail.  I finally make a decision and then the second-guessing begins and the process begins all over again.  

Being a mom, however, has forced me to speed the process up quite a bit.  After all, many of the decisions required in the course of my day are split-second choices-- leaving no time for extensive deliberation.

Do I push my crying three-year-old through his swim lesson?  Do I whack him on the tush when ten time-outs in a two hour period aren't doing the trick?  When I discover a stinky diaper 15 minutes from home, do I stop for a change or wait?  When it's 3 am and Liam hasn't slept for more than one hour at a time, do I bring him into our bed?

I was forced to make one such decision at the gym last week.

It was Liam's first time in the childcare room.  The woman in charge seemed nice enough and there were only a few children in the room.  I only planned on a 45-minute workout, so I wasn't too nervous about leaving him.  After dropping him off, I headed to the locker room to get changed.  Before hopping on a treadmill, I went to take a quick peek from a distance.

The childcare woman was in the corner on her cell phone.  A boy (he seemed about 3 years old) was kneeling in front of Liam and pushing him on his forehead.  Liam was smiling broadly, probably thinking this was some sort of game.   The boy, equally entertained, pushed harder and harder until Liam fell backwards and began crying.  This caught the woman's attention and she hung up the phone and picked Liam up.

I could have gone into the room at that moment, but I decided to take a lap around the gym and then take another look.  A minute or two later, Liam was playing in an Exersaucer and he seemed content.  So, I decided to workout as planned.

For the entire 3 miles, I was wondering if I had done the right thing.  How many decisions do you suppose a parent makes in their lifetime?  It's hard to believe that this is only the beginning.