Wednesday, June 19, 2013

a moment from today

comical moment of the day.  had to share.  who can relate?

today Henry passed his swim lesson.
I bribed him to transition with a new teacher this session with a lego set.
If you were there in the moment you would have done the same thing.
Because the moment took three teachers and the hard act of walking out to the lobby while they got him into the pool and smiling (which took 5 minutes).  And I cried like a baby in the lobby because it is hard being the mom of a shy little boy. Who has more potential than he has confidence for!

he got in the pool.
I later upped the deal saying he had to pass to get the lego set.
I know.  losing trust with changing the deal.
but it worked.

He passed.

So today he went to pick out a set (ten dollars or less).
That's hard.  I tried like a mother to get him to save. save. SAVE my boy, SAVE!
Big brother was green with jealousy but also proud of his brother.  and I was proud of big brother for walking out of target without spending his.

Big brother has $4 in his wallet.
Burning a hole.
LIKE HIS POCKET is seriously on fire.

Everyday he talks about what pokemon cards he wants to buy.
This makes my skin crawl. (yes, someday you will read this Charley and you will read that.  I hate this desire to spend money on pokemon cards, because these cards make no sense to me.  Of any toy or anything trading cards bug me.  But guess what, when your interest first peeked I was the mom that went on craigs list and found the older kid selling his set for $20 bucks. YES ME!  And your dad went and risked his life to obtain them from the 14 year old kid).

So you need a little more money to have enough for some pack of cards, so you came home to earn it.
Which is really hard for you.   You are kinda lazy lately. (keepin' it real kid)
You filled our kiddy pool for 25 cents.
You learned how to wash the counter that was smeared with toothpaste for another 50 cents.
You weeded the crack at the end of our driveway for another 25 cents.

Then you were too smart for me and went to count the change in your wallet and realized you had plenty of money from counting your coins.  So the working thing ended and for an hour you talked my ear off about these pokemon cards.

My mind was starting to shut down.
I didn't know how else to respond.  Uh huh.  Uh huh.  cool.  I responded with as much enthusiasm as I could muster...which wasn't much.  But you kept going.

Sydney wouldn't nap.
Henry needed help with his lego set...and yet you followed me around talking about pokemon and money.

I decided to grab my ipad and sneak in the bathroom and pretend I needed to go to the bathroom and see if I disappeared you would go get busy with something else.
As I shut the door you followed and thought out your purchase through the bathroom door.
(I am so sorry mom if I ever did this to you.)
But since I wasn't really going to the bathroom I just laughed even harder.
The door knob to the bathroom started to turn and who ever was turning it tried SO hard to get it open.

Then came Sydney's voice, "Mama!  I in der wit you."  repeatedly.
I said, "just a sec."

All got quiet for 10 seconds and then the recorder I used in college (because teachers have to take a music class and show some mastery to the recorder, piano, and other instruments since funding is often cut in the arts, sad.)
Miss Sydney stopped tooting her horn and announced, "Mama, I pay you the trumpet.  So loud."

At that point I had to just laugh even harder.  Seriously, give a mama a moment.

As I sat on that baby stool and listened to my life...the life I am so thankful for, I realized, this is it.  This is motherhood.

And I was also blown away when I clicked on this blog post to read as I sat there in what was supposed to be a quiet moment or mama time out.  
How perfectly fitting is this post that I clicked on.....


an open letter to my boys: on addiction to minecraft and my inability to care


It is perfect if you are a mom or dad and have a child obsessed with something that is really hard to care about and listen to...but you do it.  Because you know, if they talk about it with such passion and they want to share it with you - you know that it is your chance to earn their trust and love so that someday, someday, they will come and talk about other things that really matter like friendships, school, life.  So my son, I will listen.  And I will try to act super interested.  And I might even learn a little something along the way.  If not, I will just keep reminding myself that you stand by my side and keep talking through the bathroom door because you love me.  And I love you. 

Tomorrow we will head to Target, unless by some miracle, he realizes what a waste of money this purchase will be and changes his mind.  doubtful.   

3 comments:

Heather (One Take On Life) said...

I get it, I have a boy who loves pokemon cards and now knows how to play the game, which let me tell you will make your eyes glaze over.

But do you want to know what made me be ok with pokemon cards? My husband pointed out that it was no different than the things we collected as children. I collected Garbage pal kids cards for awhile, I still have them, ha! So since he gently reminded me of this when it started over a year ago, I have learned to let him buy it if that is what he truly wants to spend his money on, it is his money.

And I also think, if you asked him, he would think some of the things I spend money on are silly, like nail polish, or jewelry, or what have you.

That being said we do limit the spending on pokemon cards.

Pokemon cards are something I am still trying to understand, I get minecraft much more than pokemon.

Anonymous said...

Ha! I can relate. Totally and 100%. I even read it to andy and he laughed abut the bathroom thing. Rr

Peggy, Lily and Connor said...

I get it. Sometimes they just WON'T leave us alone. And just at the times when we REALLY REALLY need that time to calm ourselves, right?!
As far as pokemon..I'm up to my ears in princess and I can NOT wait until it turns into something...ANYTHING..else!!
pw

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails