Permission to let go

Tonight marked the first of six weeks of soccer for my kids.

It starts early in the evening, which was a requirement of mine when I went looking for soccer for them. (Currently, my daughter is enrolled in Beavers, and Beaver night is always a late bedtime night. Not good for kid in question. Not good for kid’s parents.)

So the deal for me to get them there on time and keep them nourished and hydrated throughout their playing time is to get a healthy on-the-go dinner packed up along with some interesting (read: junk food) snacks and plenty of water. Then I have to pick my son up at daycare, pick my daughter up at school (she normally takes the school bus home) and then scoot to the south part of the city and deliver them to the soccer field.

Cuba – You always want what you can’t have

Standing at the kitchen sink, washing the dinner dishes, listening to my kids scream and fight with each other, I wish I was in Cuba. I long for the buffet meals with nothing to clean up, the lazy walks around the pool and down to the beach, the afternoon naps in the shade of a palm tree.

Up to my elbows in dish soap suds and dirty pots and pans, I let my mind drift to our recent family vacation in Varadero, Cuba.

The trials and tribulations of two-year-olds

Now that Big Sister is pushing 5 and Little Brother has reached the Terrible Twos, I’m called upon once again to maintain my cool in the face of horrible upsets.

Thankfully, I learn my lessons well and my memory, once jogged, is long.

On spoiling

If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money.

I can’t remember who told me this, but it makes so much sense.

And so does the list below that I found on GoodEnoughMother.com. (The points in bold are from Good Enough Mother. She elaborates on her list on her site. I have chosen to make my own comments about each point below.)

1. STOP HOVERING – they will figure it out on their own…eventually.
   
2. DON’T GIVE THEM EVERYTHING – they’ll never learn the value of anything.
3. MAKE SURE YOUR KIDS KNOW THEY ARE NOT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE – if you don’t teach them this, someone else will.
4. TEACH THEM LIFE IS NOT LINEAR – sometimes you have to go backward to go forward.
5. LET THEM FAIL – it teaches them how to succeed.

And a little visual reminder…a cartoon that I quite like for its brutal honesty.

Snakes Alive!

A friend of mine threw a fantastic birthday party for her son this past Canada Day weekend. As a mother, I know what it takes to pull a kid’s birthday party together. You want it to be a success on every level, for adults and kids alike. But it’s often hard to pull that off when dealing with the younger set because you have to navigate nap times and melt downs and various other toddler/preschooler hurdles. And I’ve never seen anyone do it better than my friend. She is a super mom among super moms.

Boo boo Boo hoo

Waaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaaaa!

That’s me crying behind a locked bathroom door. It was the kids who had boo boos. But I was the one crying. How does that work?

A trip to the dentist

The title of this post may lead you to believe that I recently accomplished another mundane parenting task. I took my daughter to the dentist.

Then enters a calm

Lately I’ve been feeling calmer. So have my kids. I don’t know what has come over me. I’ve read two parenting books, both fairly different in their philosophies.

But both books spoke to me and centered me. I am, rather suddenly, a more confident parent.

Making life harder than it needs to be…one step at a time

It occurred to me this morning that I am inadvertently making my daughter’s life harder than it needs to be…one step at a time.

Getting closer to fine

“Closer to fine”

I’d like to be there.

A good many days, I’m “fine.” Just as many days, I am not “fine.” And on those days, I’m too far away from “fine” to get back there myself.

Image: Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net