Tag: Parent

children, family, gratitude, humor, motherhood, parenting

Leapin’ Lizards

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English: Lizard English: Eidechse
Image via WikipediaI

I was unwrapping a box on our dining room table.  After I had cut through some plastic and rubber bands to get to its contents, I started to clear the area.  I absent-mindedly grabbed a rubber band and then the world stopped.  On closer inspection I realized this unfortunate rubber band was actually a tiny, dead, three-inch lizard.  I had it pinched firmly between my thumb and forefinger.  I dropped it as if it were on fire and screamed my pretty little head off.

The boys raced into the dining room to see what was seemingly threatening the safety of their mother.  I was logical enough to quickly convey that physically I was fine.  Emotionally, well, the jury’s still out on that one.

I asked Full Speed to get a paper towel, pick up the deceased lizard and toss it outside.  I wasn’t sure how he was going to react.  I didn’t know if he would mirror my hysteria or step up to the challenge.  Thankfully, he was a as cool as a cucumber.

I told him he was my hero.  “I bet it was weird hearing me scream like a little girl, wasn’t it?”

“That’s okay, Mom.  You are a girl so you can scream like one,” he replied without judgement.

Wow.  A hero who simultaneously rescues and bolsters your self-esteem.  Leapin’ lizards he’s a good kid!

Take that, lizard!
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children, humor, kids, motherhood, parenting

So Proud!

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Every parent has moments when they are proud of their children.  It might be an ‘A’ on a test they worked really hard for or holding the door open for someone without being told.

This was not one of those times.

T.Puzzle decided he didn’t feel like listening to his teachers all day long (what a shocker!).  They told him since he couldn’t listen he was going to have to sit by the wall for afternoon recess and not be able to play.  They told me that he looked at them and announced that it didn’t matter because his Mom was picking him up early.  He wasn’t even going to be here for recess.

What’s the opposite of pride?  How I felt right then.

Guess who lost all their privileges and had to sit out recess the next morning?

T.Puzzle and Mad Dog. Both handsome and both don't like to be told what to do.
bad day, children, humor, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Gifted

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I was reading some headlines on the computer when one caught my eye.  It listed 10 signs that children are gifted.  Of course being a parent I was inclined to read it.  They were fairly non-specific and I didn’t leave it with any real sense of whether or not Full Speed and/or T.Puzzle fit the bill.  I then imagined a ‘gifted’ list that would fit my boys to a T.

1.  Throws raging tantrums at fifteen months until the age of five.

2. Believes themselves to be in charge when all evidence points otherwise.

3. Displays episodes of extreme hyperactivity.

4.  Won’t back down from any challenge, imposed discipline or confrontation without a fight.

5.  Fiercely independent.

6. Remembers the tiniest details and won’t ever let you forget them.

7.  Strong-willed doesn’t even began to cover their temperament.

8.  Believes themselves to always, always be right and will argue until they are blue in the face to convince you of their rightness.

9.  Asserts their needs loudly, strongly and often.

10.  Wears down their Mommy until she is certain she can’t remember her own name, where she lives or what she is doing.

Keep in mind this list was written while T.Puzzle was in his room screaming at length because he kept telling me ‘no!’ all morning long and had engaged in his new favorite past-time of ‘run-away-from-Mommy-in-the-parking-lot’.

Thankfully, I’m gifted at discipline.

children, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Summer Changes

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For most of us in my neighborhood, today is the first official day of summer vacation.  As the usual group of moms gathered outside the main exercise room at the gym, the stories of motherly frustration began to flow.  There were kids who refused to get up, who didn’t want to eat breakfast and who kicked and screamed all the way to the gym kid zone. 

We are all in the same boat.  Summer will be a fun change of pace but there will be some bumps in the road.

My favorite comments were from a Mom who has a grown daughter.  She said that frustration is part of being a mother.  The moms you have to watch out for are the ones who say their kids are “perfect” and everything about motherhood is “easy” and “always wonderful”.   

It’s okay to lose patience with your children as long as you don’t pretend that you never have.

children, gratitude, happiness, humor, kids, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

This Is Why

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I know as a parent you are supposed to be teaching your children life skills.   These skills can vary to the emotionally complex or be as simple as picking up dirty socks.  I think the latter is the easier to teach on most days.

However, Full Speed and T.Puzzle have not yet learned how to help me with laundry and this is why….

[wpvideo esIzt6Nw]

At least I have something entertaining to watch as I sort through the boys’ socks that have successfully migrated to the laundry hamper (fingers crossed!).