On the Other Hand

After that woe-is-me post from yesterday we need some cheer around here.

How about this:

Fun from the 4th, playing, fully clothed in a lake. I realized a long time ago, say almost nine years ago, when Alyssa started walking at 10ish months old, that if you don’t want a child to get wet, don’t take them anywhere near water. Seriously, don’t let them near a lake, a pond, a pool, a mud puddle, or heck, don’t even give them a sippy cup with two drops of liquid in it because that child will manage to turn those two drops of liquid into enough fluid to drench themselves.

Seriously.

So while at my aunt’s last week, we were very near a lake. As in, Lorry’s back door opens up and you’re standing on her sea wall, with about six feet of cement between you and the lake. I realize I’m usually the queen of hyperbole, but this time, I am not even slightly exaggerating.

And a half a block from her front door, there is a private beach that is available to my aunt and her neighbors to enjoy. We, as my aunt’s guests were welcome to frolick as well. It was fun. And hot. So, so hot. That water that O is dashing about in? Felt like a slightly warmed hot bath. Not refreshing in the least.

But even fully clothed, I couldn’t bring myself to care that she got soaked. It’s one of the few things I’m zen about. If you take a child near water, they’re going to get wet. No reason to get all bothered by it. Just plan to have dry clothes nearby or, well, don’t and let them drip dry. That’s what we did. She probably felt better than the rest of us, who were almost as wet, but it was because of stinky sweat rather than stinky lake water.

When my negativity quiets down every so often, I realize that at the end of most days, I’m doing pretty well at this whole mom thing. I say yes more often than I say no. I believe I’m saying yes to the right things and when I do say no, it’s because they’ve asked for or to do something either inappropriate for their ages or there just isn’t time/money/resources to do what they’ve asked to do.

And saying no is okay. It’s necessary.

Though saying no to a child asking to play fully clothed in a lake or even a puddle just seems mean and if there’s no good reason (as in you’re on your way to a fancy dress party or church or some other place where muddy clothes might seem disrespectful) then let the mud fly. I do believe my kids will look back on those times fondly, remembering that there were moments when Mom was pretty darned fun to be around.