I wish I could tell you she was the best behaved today, but that would be a lie.
It seems we’ve got some issues where she would prefer that you do it for her. She’s torn: She wants to be big, but also wants Dad to do it all.
Dad does not want to do it all. Dad wants a nap.
She refused to put her socks and shoes on so we could go to swimming lessons and then after the swimming lessons she would not go into the change room. She wanted me to take her. As much as I love her, she needs to spread her wings more and learn to fly on her own. In time. I hope.
Anyway…
The Creek!
This I can get behind. She was upstairs in her room when both Carson and Ethel showed up. If I had to guess - their parents tossed them outside and told them to go find a friend because it was a great day outside. The child was found and of course they wanted to come inside and I told them no and to go play.
She came back full of fresh air and smelling like mud and grass.
“I got my feet wet in the creek”, she exclaimed
That’s okay I told her. Shoes are washable. I told her on the way to her room to rinse off her feet and lo and behold: she did! Just when I was about to give up, she gives me a little sliver of hope
There’s a little creek at the edge of our neighborhood park so it’s almost impossible to keep them out of it - even if I wanted to. The over-cautious helicopter Dad in me wants her to be careful and stay out of the creek, but the Dad that grew up with his own creek (by his playground too, coincidentally) wants her to play and get wet and explore frogs and random creek bacteria.
Of course, there’s water safety to consider and all that, but the park is less than 50 feet from Ethel’s back door and it hasn’t rained in forever here so it’s not like there’s a beach hazard.
That’s the ultimate challenge: You want them to put shoes on by themselves, but you also don’t want them to stray too far from the safety of your watch.
This parenting thing is a struggle I did not win today.
Tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow.
Keeping it together,
TH and Co.