I did follow through with stepping out of character and realized I need to do things like that more often. It is still out of character for me to jump into messes that I don’t make myself, that can be dangerous to my furniture and that can quickly become out of control. However, it is not out of character for me to want my boys to feel proud of themselves, and they did. Sometimes you gotta get messy to get results. I know there are less messy ways to encourage my boys and make them feel very proud of themselves, but this way lasts a long time.
On Monday, Independence Day, we went to the house of some friends in Cheatham County. It’s a good 50 minute drive and around 3:30 I was looking at the clock thinking we should leave. Not because anyone wanted to, but because I knew that if we started leaving right then we would get home by 5:00. The boys would still need dinner and baths and we would all be super tired from being outside and playing in the pool most of the day. I didn’t say anything though. I made myself not think about it.
Driving home that night I told Kris how I knew that we would hit miserable on the way home since it was around 8:00 when we left. I knew the youngest boys would fall asleep in the van, that there would be very few dinner options on the way home, that giving them baths would mean a lot of whining and crying…BUT…we did it anyway. I didn’t say anything at 3:30 because having a well timed peaceful evening isn’t always as valuable as having great memories of swimming together, gliding down the zip line and chatting until the bugs came out. (It takes a lot for me to admit that.) It was a good day, a fun and tiring and relaxing and memorable day. That’s good results. Lasting results.
And here are the results of my stepping out of character yesterday. Now hanging in the Play Room Gallery:
Owen’s “Mixture Mountain”
Aron’s “Hole”
Love the pictures, and they coordinate so well together. I am sure the boys are proud of their gallery! Creativity is worth the mess involved!
You know, I feel like I usually do a good job of being relaxed and letting the kids have fun…but I’ve never given them an actual canvas before! It seems like such a big step and so permanent. Good job 🙂
It is worth it mom, and Amy, so many of my friends are so much better at this area of parenting than I am. I am too uptight here, but I’m challenging myself and I’m glad I did it.