Mothering with a hard heart

I have a neighbor who I don't get along with. The details of why are not super important but we had a disagreement and she has never spoken to me since. We share a bus stop and children the same age so to say it is awkward is an understatement. I believe that as an adult I will have disagreements with people (even arguments), we will share our differences of opinions and then we will move on. So to me this cold shoulder is odd. I find it odd for an adult to behave in such a way. I also hate the message it sends to our children.

Anyway (I digress), recently I have found myself giving the cold should back to this woman AND I have inadvertently included in my coldness, this woman's children. A couple of days ago it dawned on me how small and immature and short sighted this is on my part. What kind of message am I sending??? Am I not just as bad? Since this realization I have gone out of my way to be kind to these children. Something as simple as a smile and wave can make a big difference. I don't see the Mom's heart softening anytime soon and while I don't want to be "in her face" about being kind to her children I also don't want to get caught up in the meanness and coldness.

I think there is a struggle in situations like this one. As parents we will be surrounded by other parents, teachers, even children that we aren't crazy about. We will meet people with different rules, values, morals, etc. Isn't it our job to find a way to take those differences, teach our children about what we believe to be right and then showing them how to stand up for what you believe in.

Getting caught up in petty differences just turns our children into close minded people. I hope that by realizing I have to keep my moral compass tuned at all times I can teach my children what's right and what's wrong.