Tag: Mama Moments

Is Meanness a 9-1-1 Offense?

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Mama

My husband and I have been talking to our now five-year-old son about emergencies and dialing 9-1-1 in the event he needs help, but I wasn’t prepared for yesterday’s morning conversation. . .

As I tried to usher our son out the door for preschool, he asked to bring a toy to show his friends. This is a little something he often requests, and ever so often I allow him to carry a dinosaur, truck or train to school to show his buddies, then I promptly cart it back home with me. I try not to indulge this activity too often because it disrupts the start of school, but I figure as long as we make it quick, it doesn’t hurt every now and then.

So yesterday morning as coats are flying, lunch pails flinging and we are running a few minutes late, my son asks to bring a toy. Mind you, not a specific something, but just something. Knowing the search for the perfect toy would add several minutes to our departure time and he showed and told just last week, I nixed his request. To which, he ignored my nixing and headed for his room. More forcibly , I told him no and asked him to get in the car.

Other than a foot stomp (yeah, he’s five going on fifteen), his simple response was, “Where’s your phone?” Bewildered, I watched him walk round and round the kitchen and living room looking for my phone.

When I finally asked him why he needed a phone, he answered with a huff, “I need to dial 9-1-1, because you’re being mean.”

Snake Encounters 101 – The Preschool Version

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Mama

Before we went on our back-to-back family vacations, my husband decided to have a little talk with our son about snakes. I’m so glad he thought of it, because I just figured it was intuitive that one should run very fast and very far when encountering a slithery serpent. As it turns out, that’s apparently not how it works in the adventurous mind of a four-year-old boy.

After explaining that we would be spending some time by the water and in the woods, my husband asked our son quite simply, “What do you do if you see a snake?”

His answer was, quite simply, “I kick it.”

Calmly, his dad explained how dangerous snakes can be and that we should quietly and quickly walk away from a snake should we happen upon one. He also explained that most snakes mean us no harm, but if we startle them in the wild they might bite us because they are scared. So again he posed the question, “What do you do if you see a snake?”

His answer was, “I step on its head.”

A bit flustered, my husband re-explained the whole reason a snake might bite someone if caught off guard. Again came the same question, “What do you do if you see a snake?”

His answer was, “I jump over it.”

Okay, so completely frustrated now and trying not to show it, my husband explains the whole snake encounter in a different way and suggests that if he should come upon a snake he should immediately show Mom or Dad and let us deal with the said serpent. I’m thinking this is pretty clever, because it gets our son away from the snake and alerts us to its presence. Go Dad!

So one last time, my husband asks, “What do you do if you see a snake?”

His answer was, “How do I pick it up?”

Mom and Dad are both freaking out a bit by now and when I asked why he would ever pick up a snake, he shot me that “duh” sort of look and simply said, “How am I going to show you the snake if I don’t pick it up?”

, , , luckily we didn’t see any snakes.

photo credit: Rhabdophis subminiatus, red-necked keelback – Kaeng Krachan National Park via photopin (license)

Concentration Can Wait

Posted on August 4, 2015August 1, 2015 by Mama

I used to think I was a pretty good multi-tasker. . . and then my son was born, carrying a big ol’ dose of reality in his adorable tiny fist. Amid the diaper changes, feeding times, bathing and general baby supervision it quickly became evident that I cannot do two things at once. In fact, the more I try to concentrate, the more he tries to get my attention and both of us just become completely frustrated.

A few weeks ago I had to take my sidekick along to decorate our church for VBS. I knew this would slow me down quite a bit, but what I didn’t foresee was the need to read, understand and execute an entire 11-step creative cardboard project. Yes, I’m apparently into torture.

While I begged and pleaded my little man to occupy himself with one of the many items we brought along, the more he wanted to “help.” Unfortunately it was one of those tasks that little fingers were just not made to conquer and I hardly had a clue what to do myself. The more he talked, fidgeted, and jumped in the middle my project and the more I tried to concentrate, be patient and build something beautiful from a bunch of flappy cardboard pieces, the more frustrated, unfocused and so-not-cool I became. Until finally my son had had enough. He promptly stuffed all his games, colors and paper in his backpack, put his arms through the straps and calmly said, “I’m going.”

When I asked just where he thought he was going, he assertively said, “I’m going home.”

That’s when I realized that losing my cool over this silly project (which would probably go seriously underappreciated) was so not worth it. So I finally apologized to my son, left the project lying in the middle of the church aisle and went home to spend a few dedicated hours with my little guy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that moms drop everything, never complete a task and come running at every inquiry from a small child’s voice (although I’ve stopped and started this article no less than 12 times because a certain someone just woke from his nap), but I have learned that the cost of some battles are so not worth the fight, and sometimes a mother’s concentration can wait another day.

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