Why do you have to be so much like me?
Often I find my kids doing things that remind me of things I did when I was a kid. When I was a kid, these things were okay. Now that I am a parent, they make no sense to me, and I find myself saying to my kids ‘Do as I say, not as I have done.’
For example, Patrick insists on riding his bike to school every day. This is a good thing. We live close enough that he should not need a ride to school, even in winter. The problem is that he refuses to wear a coat. He insists that he does not get cold, despite the fact that his cheeks (all sets) are purple before he gets there when the temperature is in the teens. I am reminded of times when I was a youth, walking to school in short pants in the middle of winter, with icicles forming on me leg hairs. Why did I do this? Why does anyone do anything? Because they can.
Last night I sent the kids down to their rooms for reading time. After a time I noticed that Patrick’s light was off. Knowing that there was no way he had gone to bed on his own, I ventured down to find the door to Samantha and Lauren’s room closed. I opened the door to find that the three had taken every stuffed animal, pillow and blanket in the house (there are many) and lined the floor of the bedroom. They had then proceeded to stuff their pajamas with pillows and stuffed animals and were punching each other in the chest and kicking each other in the butt as hard as they could, trying to knock each other down. They were also belly-flopping from the upper bunk into a pile of pillows, blankets and teddy bears.
My first thought was to get mad at them for eschewing story time in favor of roughhousing. However, though they were throwing punches, they were not ‘fighting’ as they usually do. Also, they agreed to clean up the mess. And most importantly, they were not lounging in front of the TV, thumbing through the iPod, or playing video games.
The activity reminded me of some of the many adventures we got into as kids. Specifically the slide we used to make down the basement stairs. We would drag two mattresses from our beds and place them end to end on the stairs, forming a nearly 12 foot slide. Due to the narrowness of the stairs, the mattresses were cupped, and we would shoot recklessly down the chute. At the bottom of the slide we had created a padded landing, similar to the one my kids were using to dive from the top bunk. The difference between our escapades on the stair-slide and my kids’ wrestling, is that our fun usually lasted until someone fell into tears. P-Man, Sam and Bean eventually cleaned up their mess and went to bed without incident. Maybe it’s only a matter of time before we end up in the ER with a head injury or a tooth through the lip. It’s all a part of growing up I guess…
Often I find my kids doing things that remind me of things I did when I was a kid. When I was a kid, these things were okay. Now that I am a parent, they make no sense to me, and I find myself saying to my kids ‘Do as I say, not as I have done.’
For example, Patrick insists on riding his bike to school every day. This is a good thing. We live close enough that he should not need a ride to school, even in winter. The problem is that he refuses to wear a coat. He insists that he does not get cold, despite the fact that his cheeks (all sets) are purple before he gets there when the temperature is in the teens. I am reminded of times when I was a youth, walking to school in short pants in the middle of winter, with icicles forming on me leg hairs. Why did I do this? Why does anyone do anything? Because they can.
Last night I sent the kids down to their rooms for reading time. After a time I noticed that Patrick’s light was off. Knowing that there was no way he had gone to bed on his own, I ventured down to find the door to Samantha and Lauren’s room closed. I opened the door to find that the three had taken every stuffed animal, pillow and blanket in the house (there are many) and lined the floor of the bedroom. They had then proceeded to stuff their pajamas with pillows and stuffed animals and were punching each other in the chest and kicking each other in the butt as hard as they could, trying to knock each other down. They were also belly-flopping from the upper bunk into a pile of pillows, blankets and teddy bears.
My first thought was to get mad at them for eschewing story time in favor of roughhousing. However, though they were throwing punches, they were not ‘fighting’ as they usually do. Also, they agreed to clean up the mess. And most importantly, they were not lounging in front of the TV, thumbing through the iPod, or playing video games.
The activity reminded me of some of the many adventures we got into as kids. Specifically the slide we used to make down the basement stairs. We would drag two mattresses from our beds and place them end to end on the stairs, forming a nearly 12 foot slide. Due to the narrowness of the stairs, the mattresses were cupped, and we would shoot recklessly down the chute. At the bottom of the slide we had created a padded landing, similar to the one my kids were using to dive from the top bunk. The difference between our escapades on the stair-slide and my kids’ wrestling, is that our fun usually lasted until someone fell into tears. P-Man, Sam and Bean eventually cleaned up their mess and went to bed without incident. Maybe it’s only a matter of time before we end up in the ER with a head injury or a tooth through the lip. It’s all a part of growing up I guess…
2 comments:
Good reminder for me on this chilly PMSy day that kids and their escapades are cute!
Good reminder on this chilly PMSy day that kids' escapades are pretty cute
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