Life Lessons

On any given day, the little people in my house are taking it all in and learning something about this thing called life. You don't bite people, stepstools can make anything off-limits totally accessible, and if you sit back a little too far on the potty, you can in fact, get pee everywhere but IN the potty. To say it's exhausting is an understatement. I've said things I never thought I would say ("We don't eat toilet paper out of the toilet"--yes, really), and I know that a future with two teenage daughters will continue to provide numerous situations in which I'm speechless and clueless as to how to parent. Yet, one of the things I've noticed as the girls get older is best said in this quote that I just read online: "While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

HOW TRUE. Lately, I've noticed my girls reminding me what's truly important in life:

1. It's the little things that matter.
We recently dropped some satellite channels to save money. We won't miss a few channels. . . unless one is THE cartoon channel my girls adore. So for months now we've been acting shocked and disappointed nearly EVERY morning. "Ahhhhh, Dora's not on again!" Dang satellite provider. So the other morning, I was in my bathroom getting ready for another day at work, tired and cranky and ready for a weekend. All of a sudden, I heard an elephant running through the house and Stinkus appeared at my door with a giddy laugh and twinkly eyes. "MOM!!! Doh-doh's ON!!! Doh-doh's on! Are you SO excited?!" Then she giggled and danced around a bit, hopping from one foot to the other before she hightailed it back down the hall. How could I NOT be excited? If only we adults could be that excited over something so small.

2. Never let worry keep you awake at night.
Sassy was having trouble falling asleep and I immediately started worrying about her. I didn't know if she was upset about something at school, if someone was picking on her, if she was dreading a certain class. I sat down, all sympathetic and concerned, and tried to prepare a good answer for whatever she revealed. "I just can't stand," she started, "how fun every day is!" And she broke into a huge grin and kicked her legs. How many of us go to bed and can't sleep because every day is SO fun? I'm blessed to love my job but I have no problems sleeping. Ask my couch. :) And if I'm NOT sleeping, it's because I'm stressed out or worried about something.

3. Everyone deserves to have a friend.
One of my biggest concerns when Sassy started school was who her friends would be. We don't know a lot of people or families here. My siblings and I didn't grow up with money (neither are my kids) but we seemed to be friends with the "good" kids: the kids from good homes, whose parents were like mine, whose homes were like the one in which I grew up. So I've been hoping that Sassy would also be drawn to a "good" kid. Upon some investigation, I learned that her best friend doesn't have a very good home life, and really struggles in school. I initially (of course) worried. I hoped that Sassy wasn't being shunned by the "good" kids, I worried about future sleepovers and going to this little girl's house, I wondered why Sassy wasn't friends with someone more like her. So I started with the sneaky Mom interrogation: "How did you start being friends?" And my sweet, sensitive Sassy said, "She was really sad one day and I cheered her up." Interrogation over. When you're five, everyone is the same. Kids don't see the differences that we adults dwell on. So at that moment, I sent up a little prayer of thanksgiving. I was so proud and grateful that my sweet little girl is a friend to someone who may really need one, and that in return, she is learning (and teaching, apparently) important lessons about friendship. And isn't that what I've wanted?

It's funny that we think we have all the answers. And really, how important are some of the "lessons" I've been teaching? There probably aren't a lot of adults going around biting each other and peeing everywhere. I know that I'm giving my kids more than that--but how amazing that they're giving me more as well.