Sunday, February 10, 2008

My nieces, nephew, and sons are all playing a game involving a boat (which is really an inflatable kiddie pool), chairs inside the boat, Turkey, and a macroplata ( a prehistoric shark). This game includes lots of screaming and trying to persuade the others to sail where they want to. Strangely, its my son that is doing the most screaming and persuading. His latest phrase is "We need to.....!". The suggestions are so urgently expressed, its a shame that adults rarely speak with such urgency unless they're talking about sports or other people. What do we tell people to do? I guess mothers do a lot of that with their children. Yesterday was Saturday and the day was wide open for me. I had all day free with just me and the kids. What to do? Well, mostly I did what I wanted and told them what to do the whole day in a way in which I would be embarrassed if anyone else heard me. I was playing the guitar because Cinci finally took his nap and the other two were just plain annoying me. They had made messes with their toys and then wanted to go outside. I didn't want to at the moment. I was too engrossed at hearing my own voice and practicing chord progressions that I just thought of chores to give them so I wouldn't have to dress them up yet to go outside. I told them to pick up their toys. "Atticus, blocks!", "Shermie, cars!" And you know what? They actually did it, in that instant. I stopped playing and looked at Atticus' little bowl head slightly inclined as he picked up the blocks one by one. I thought,"He is such a good kid. If he were ten years older would he respect me like this? Will he respect me in ten years? Am I treating him carefully and not abusing his willingness to obey now? If I ask him to do too much will he get tired of it and say 'this being nice to mommy thing isn't worth it, it's over'?" Anyway, to make a long story short, I repented slightly and went outside sledding with them.

1 comment:

Jordan said...

I've wondered the EXACT same thing!