Kids, they are described as a hand full, mess, crazy, rowdy, funny, hyper, wild and a whole lot more. They break things, create things, make you smile, make you cry, bring joy and cause eye twitches. Some days we kiss them too much and some days we do not kiss them enough. Some days we do not want them to leave our side and some days we look at those faces starring up at us and just think, "Why? WHHYY?" We all have our moments but for the most part we love our small little humans. They have small feet, hands, noses, fingers and toes. They say the funniest things. They are silly and we just can't get enough some days. We love everything about them. Don't we? No, for real aren't we supposed to love all their cute "kidness"? We are supposed to but I am not convinced. I know, I can see your heads tilting to the side and eyes all wild like I just killed your puppy. You are thinking, "No, I love my child and all that they do and would never want them to change." You are a liar. Sorry, just telling you the truth. If we really liked children acting, well, like children, we would not really do half the things we do. Like for instance, telling them they cannot yell. I mean come on? What kid doesn't love to hear their own voice magnified to a volume even an astronaut could hear? What about running in the house? Or running much at all? Where can children run now a day? In a big open field with a helmet and knee pads on? I get if you are in a public place but those little legs are just itching for a full on sprint, pretty much, 24 hours a day. How about wrestling, climbing trees, building forts, making up huge long stories that go on and on and on, eating bugs, getting dirty, being loud, dancing, jumping, spilling things, forgetting things, going too slow, going too fast and the list could go for days. We really do not LIKE any of those things. We as adults are so stuffy, boring and impatient we just want our children to submit to our slow, quiet ways and sit on the couch with a book and read all day. If they ask us if they can go play cowboys and indians our faces twist into this weird shape, one eyes squints a little and all that is running through our head is, "Oh gosh it will be so loud and what if they hurt themselves, what can I say to get out of this?" oh and for some of you real tightie whities, "We do not play those kind of games in our house." <--- BOOOO!
We act burdened by their simple desire to play outside, tag, hide and seek or any other activity involving heat or too much physical activity. We are really put out if they cry when they are tired, whine when they are hungry or make messes in the bathroom. I am not excluded from this. A small ball of fire forms in my chest when I walk into my 5 year olds bathroom and the towel is on the ground, toilet paper pieces have somehow been shredded onto the carpet, toothpaste is globbed onto the counter and a few cars are sitting in the bottom of the sink, that is now half full of water. I mean why am I even upset? Why would I even be surprised what the bathroom looks like? He is five! He has no idea how to put the towel back, he didn't even see the toilet paper, he put the toothpaste on his toothbrush and brushed his teeth just like I asked and my goodness, a sink makes for a great swimming pool ramp for a few hot wheels. Yet, why in the world am I angry? I also get so angry, like check myself before I rage angry, when the kid leaves his clothes ALL OVER the floor in his room. He doesn't care. He just changes his clothes and he knows folding those takes three times long than folding them, so to the floor they go. No matter how many spankings, no matter how many talks, no matter how many freak outs or "AIDEN whhhyy are your clothes everywhere?” he STILL leaves them on the ground. Why do I get so mad? Why is when he talks so much and asks 100 questions do I feel like there must be tiny parent torture exports in his mind feeding all these crazy questions to him? Why do I want to punch myself in the face when Cole wakes up at 5 a.m. wanting to eat? Why do we get mad when they just act their age? I will tell you why? They are inconveniencing us. They are not doing it the way we ask. They are not making our lives easy. Yep, our little bundles of joy force us to be selfless, or crazy. We have to change how we see our children. Why can't we just sit and answer all the questions? We have our own minds to worry about? Is it better than just conversing with your child? Probably not. Why can't we just go play outside in the 90+ degree weather? Because, gasp, we will get hot? Oh, get over it. Get a glass of water and put some shorts on. If we let them play in the dirt than, oh my, we might have to bathe them or do laundry!! How could they! If we let them make a tent out of blankets in their room, then it will be messy and no one can see your messy house. *eye roll*
There is so much more to life than business meetings, schedules, work, Facebook, texting, dishes or anything else keeping us from really giving our little boogers our full attention. Let them have fun. Let them say funny things without adding a correction or thinking "oh gosh we do not say poop in this house". Oh come on! We can teach our children how to be respectable, polite, well rounded adults and still allow them to be children. Aiden knows not to walk up to a stranger and fart on them...but boy; he will do it to his daddy and laugh like crazy. Ha! It is pretty funny. If your kid walks up to you and just says something totally bizarre just, accept it. Maybe even, wait for it, LAUGH! We are so serious and it teaches them life is so serious. We are teaching them that life is busy and tiring and we can’t really relax and have fun. We as parents and adults need to learn how to not be so serious.
Let yourself be a kid again. Stop being so serious. Lighten up and enjoy life. Let it be a way to let go of some stress. Do not worry so much about if your child is smart enough, pretty enough, talented enough, tall enough or whatever, just let them be kids. Our children do not need to act like adults in little people bodies. They need to have fun! Could you imagine the joy on your child's face if they said, “Hey will you play ninja’s with me?” and then you say “Yea I will!” It breaks my heart when I see kids look at me like I am weird when I act silly or ask them funny questions. I just want to hug them and tell them life is not so lame.
LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE! Have fun and let your kids act like kids.
We act burdened by their simple desire to play outside, tag, hide and seek or any other activity involving heat or too much physical activity. We are really put out if they cry when they are tired, whine when they are hungry or make messes in the bathroom. I am not excluded from this. A small ball of fire forms in my chest when I walk into my 5 year olds bathroom and the towel is on the ground, toilet paper pieces have somehow been shredded onto the carpet, toothpaste is globbed onto the counter and a few cars are sitting in the bottom of the sink, that is now half full of water. I mean why am I even upset? Why would I even be surprised what the bathroom looks like? He is five! He has no idea how to put the towel back, he didn't even see the toilet paper, he put the toothpaste on his toothbrush and brushed his teeth just like I asked and my goodness, a sink makes for a great swimming pool ramp for a few hot wheels. Yet, why in the world am I angry? I also get so angry, like check myself before I rage angry, when the kid leaves his clothes ALL OVER the floor in his room. He doesn't care. He just changes his clothes and he knows folding those takes three times long than folding them, so to the floor they go. No matter how many spankings, no matter how many talks, no matter how many freak outs or "AIDEN whhhyy are your clothes everywhere?” he STILL leaves them on the ground. Why do I get so mad? Why is when he talks so much and asks 100 questions do I feel like there must be tiny parent torture exports in his mind feeding all these crazy questions to him? Why do I want to punch myself in the face when Cole wakes up at 5 a.m. wanting to eat? Why do we get mad when they just act their age? I will tell you why? They are inconveniencing us. They are not doing it the way we ask. They are not making our lives easy. Yep, our little bundles of joy force us to be selfless, or crazy. We have to change how we see our children. Why can't we just sit and answer all the questions? We have our own minds to worry about? Is it better than just conversing with your child? Probably not. Why can't we just go play outside in the 90+ degree weather? Because, gasp, we will get hot? Oh, get over it. Get a glass of water and put some shorts on. If we let them play in the dirt than, oh my, we might have to bathe them or do laundry!! How could they! If we let them make a tent out of blankets in their room, then it will be messy and no one can see your messy house. *eye roll*
There is so much more to life than business meetings, schedules, work, Facebook, texting, dishes or anything else keeping us from really giving our little boogers our full attention. Let them have fun. Let them say funny things without adding a correction or thinking "oh gosh we do not say poop in this house". Oh come on! We can teach our children how to be respectable, polite, well rounded adults and still allow them to be children. Aiden knows not to walk up to a stranger and fart on them...but boy; he will do it to his daddy and laugh like crazy. Ha! It is pretty funny. If your kid walks up to you and just says something totally bizarre just, accept it. Maybe even, wait for it, LAUGH! We are so serious and it teaches them life is so serious. We are teaching them that life is busy and tiring and we can’t really relax and have fun. We as parents and adults need to learn how to not be so serious.
Let yourself be a kid again. Stop being so serious. Lighten up and enjoy life. Let it be a way to let go of some stress. Do not worry so much about if your child is smart enough, pretty enough, talented enough, tall enough or whatever, just let them be kids. Our children do not need to act like adults in little people bodies. They need to have fun! Could you imagine the joy on your child's face if they said, “Hey will you play ninja’s with me?” and then you say “Yea I will!” It breaks my heart when I see kids look at me like I am weird when I act silly or ask them funny questions. I just want to hug them and tell them life is not so lame.
LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE! Have fun and let your kids act like kids.