Brendan and I were in the park today when a woman showed up with her six kids. She filled up almost the entire little park with her brood. There were teenagers, and tweens, and toddlers. She seemed to have had them in pairs; each child had a companion close in age.The kids were loud -- all yelling "Mom! -- and competing for attention. Yet, this woman was composed, well put together and-- dare I say it? -- happy.
I mentally told myself that I had to step up my "mom" game. I chastised myself for my lack of patience and my intolerance for noise. And just as I was starting to envy this woman -- whom I was sure must be the front-runner for the Mother of the Year award -- I noticed that one her younger children was wearing a bathing suit. Just a bathing suit. It's April. And it's 63 degrees outside.
I may not have the patience of Ghandi and I may not have six kids, but on any given day, I can work up the energy to put pants on Brendan before we head out the door. Let me take back that statuette ....
2 comments:
I love it!!! It is amazing how we are constantly on the look out. we are constantly observing, comparing and judging. I was even more impressed by that parent relaxed way of dealing and looking at life. I am almost sure that she had noticed the child in the bathing suit, but to even imagine the countless confrontations as what to wear and why. The teenaged siblings would or could have helped dress the younger ones. I am almost sure that the bathing suit scene was a lesson in process. OOhray to that Mom, because she did not let the judgment, the criticism stop her from giving that little one a lesson. Tired, she was not, because she made it to the park blissfully and joyfully.
Mami, is that you? :-)
I agree with most of your comment. There probably really was a lesson at play in the bathing suit incident. And if it was a 10 year old freezing her butt off in a bathing suit, I'd say it was a lesson well learned; but it was a younger child. Unfortunately, younger children don't have all their brain cells up and running yet, so that's what moms are for. (I'll get off my soapbox now.)
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