Last week my toddler and I took a trip to one of his favorite parks to play for the afternoon. As we were leaving the house, he grabbed two small tangerines.

He carried his precious tangerines around the yard as I loaded the car. I hefted the jogging stroller, his balance bike and helmet, the dog and various snacks into our Subaru wagon. As I strapped him into his car seat, I noticed that he was no longer holding the orange fruit. I quickly poked around the car, but did not see them.

When we arrived to the park, I unloaded all of his gear and opened the back of the wagon for our 80-pound lab to hop out. We all crossed the street and headed for the playground.

"My oranges!" he suddenly called out. He calls tangerines "oranges."

"You forgot them at home, honey," I answered.

"No, in the car!" he said.

"I looked in the car and they were not there," I explained. "I know you wanted to eat them. We will get them at home."

"In the car!" he insisted.

I paused. We were almost to the playground. I knew that the oranges were not in the car because I already tried to find them as we were leaving. My best guess was that they were in the yard at home somewhere. I did not want to turn around and pretend to look for them. It had been a long day and I wasn't feeling particularly patient.

I looked into his eyes. He really cared about those oranges. Now was my opportunity to show my caring and respect for him.

"Okay, let's go look again," I said softly.

I turned the stroller around, tugged at the eager dog’s leash (the off-leash dog area was in sniffing distance and she was excited). We crossed the street again and I opened up the car. The little guy pushed in front of me, determined to find the "oranges."

He reached right under the driver’s seat of the car and pulled out two small tangerines.

"Oranges!" he exclaimed in triumph. The look of delight and confidence on his face touched my heart.

"You were right, buddy," I said. "I wish I would have believed you about the oranges."

Admitting I am wrong about something has always been difficult for me. But over my 17 years of mothering, I have gotten better at acknowledging my mistakes.

As parents, we sometimes think we need to "save face" or be right in order to maintain our authority. We might even feel that if we admit we made a mistake, it shows that we are weak or not in control.

But think about it this way: Do you respect people more when they are flexible and admit when they make mistakes - or when they are rigid and always "have to be right"?

When you have a relationship based on connection, no one has to be "right" (as this always implies someone else is "wrong") Instead, you focus on the rightness of listening to each other!