My beautiful Mom comes up to my house once a week to watch on Sam and pick my kids up from school. She does this so I can go have a few hours of uninterrupted writing and I love her for it. I would post a picture here of my mom but I don't even know if I have any because she refuses to allow photos of her.
Let me dig around.
Found one! That's mom, me and Carrie, my sister. My face is glowing like I just drank uranium or something. I don't know how that happened, but just look at my mom and ignore the big head in the middle.
Anyway, sometimes the kids tell me they've done things with Grammy that I don't allow them to do. Not like starting fires in the kitchen or using steak knives to play Star Wars...but simple things, like Sophia changing Sam's diaper. I never knew she could do it, but my mom let her and she did great.
Now, sometimes she'll get Sam up for me and change him. I'm always so impressed and surprised when she does this. But she is almost nine.
So, the other day I was out at the bookstore writing (I could do a blog series about the crazy people I encounter at the bookstore.) and I came home and saw Ethan running around outside.
In this cold.
Is he crazy?
I know I've told you what a hermit I am, and sometimes I think when it's -10 outside, it's best to keep the kids inside. But it's been warming up. And I'm still inhibiting their outdoor play.
Bad mommy.
He was having a blast. Looking at his snow angel:
eating snow... (with a loose tooth...)
...and just generally soaking up what's left of the winter.
yeah, it was one of those "I should be doing this everyday after school, Mom" moments.
I think the lesson I learned is that so often my answer is "No" before I even hear the question. I mean, seriously, if he wants to go outside and run down the hill in the snow, why do I automatically assume that it's too cold? My first thought is that I would hate it so I attribute my own feelings to my kids when I really should let them figure it out for themselves.
And not turn them into homebodied hermits.
What about you? Do you ever find yourself inflicting your own feelings/issues on your kids without realizing it?
Please tell me you do. Because if I'm alone in this, I'm gonna feel like one rotten mama!
