I see Paris, I see France...
I was careful not to be too silly around my children.
Silliness usually involves acting in random and vaguely inappropriate ways. This is funny because it's unexpected; putting a spoon on one's nose while eating out, or doing a silly dance in the bank line, or chucking a pea across the table at family dinner. But children don't understand the limitations that make this sort of behavior ok so if they try to get the same laugh they almost always go too far: chucking a handful of peas or sticking the back of a fork up their nose. Then they get chastised by their parent for their 'bad behavior' and I think that's just confusing to them - life is confusing enough without making it punitive, in my opinion. Well, and in my case I had ch4rm, who was silly enough for any 3 people.
Then I got divorced.
I realized two things, looking close at these padawans' ages, abilities and what they needed from me now that I was the sole parent for so much time; one, they were good kids, and much more competent and wise than I had previously noticed and two, I could be a more balanced mom than I had been. Having someone who was always going to rile the kids and keep them up past bedtime meant my job was to NOT... but without him, I got to be the one to do it if I wanted to!
I liked that a lot.
So I 'got more happy', as Paris commented a few weeks after we all had been together as a little alt!family. I played more. More craziness, more silliness, and much more giggling; less strictness, less a taskmistress all the time, and WAY less abrupt stopping of the fun. Play is certainly my natural state, after all, as anyone who knows me as Skye (as opposed to 'mommers') knows.
SO. The story. The story of when Cai, my 6 year old crazy son, had to put the breaks on me. Yesterday.
I get dressed for school, get the kids up and dressed and fed, and leave at the same time they do: them to walk to school, me to drive to the bus. Yesterday it was typical Colorado fall weather - winter in the morning, summer during the day, and cool fall at night. So dressing for school, we all wear layers and modular clothes. My favorite changeable item of clothing this season is my long knit socks - and by socks, I mean two to-my-butt almost-tights. The great Fall thing about them is they turn into knee-high socks with a few rolls down, then slouch socks for mid-day, or they're warm and snug as tights, all the way up, when I'm headed home at 10pm. I <3 long socks!
ANYWAY (and I realize I've lost all the boys already), yesterday morning I was telling Maddie and Syd and Cai how I had on AMAZING INCREDIBLE SOCK TIGHTS.
"Let's see!" said Maddie, and Syd added, "Let's see! Let's see!"
I wouldn't have if Paris had been around - a 13 year-old does not need to see his mother's underwear. But since it was just the girls, and Cai's still a baby and doesn't hardly even care about that whole boy-girl difference...
I hiked my skirt up, showing my white knit just-under-my-buttocks tights and my white underwear... with a Picachu doing a thundershock on the tiny triangle butt.
And then? I did a bumpershow, wiggling my butt and doing a little dance in place while singing, "These are A-MAAAAZ-ING, I am A-MAAAAZ-ING... Thundershock, WHOO! I love my socks, WHOO!!"
I thought Maddie and Syd were going to DIE, they were laughing so hard. Syd actually sat right down on the kitchen floor, she was laughing so much!
Cai did laugh, but then he stopped my dancing with a stern, "Mom!"
I stopped dancing, lowered my skirt, and bent over to talk to him.
"What, Cai?" I said, "Aren't those cool socks? And hellooooo thundershock Picachu!"
"MOM, you just... you have..." Cai said, trying to compose his thoughts in so odd a situation as this was to him. He's a kind child, careful what he says, but not finding the right words he gave up diplomacy.
"Mom," he said, finally, "Mom, that was INAPPROPRIATE! I ALMOST SAW YOUR PRIVATES!!!"
Oooooooh dang. NOT a baby, was my Cai. And now I was in trouble.
I tried to recover.
"Oh no, Cai, I have underwear on..." I said, attempting to move my actions from inappropriate back to silly. But I realized then that privates and underwear were almost the same thing, to a small boy that knows the difference between girl underwear and boy underwear.
I looked around at Syd, still on the floor giggling, "Thundershock! Thundershock!" as Maddie did an imitation of my bumpershow dance, singing "...amaaaazing! Amaaaazing!" and knew I couldn't recover now.
Cai snickered. "You have Picachu on your underwear..." he snorted, and turned to go up the stairs, yelling, "PARIS! GUESS WHAT MOMMERS DID..."
Oooooooh dear; Now I was in BIG trouble!
Silliness usually involves acting in random and vaguely inappropriate ways. This is funny because it's unexpected; putting a spoon on one's nose while eating out, or doing a silly dance in the bank line, or chucking a pea across the table at family dinner. But children don't understand the limitations that make this sort of behavior ok so if they try to get the same laugh they almost always go too far: chucking a handful of peas or sticking the back of a fork up their nose. Then they get chastised by their parent for their 'bad behavior' and I think that's just confusing to them - life is confusing enough without making it punitive, in my opinion. Well, and in my case I had ch4rm, who was silly enough for any 3 people.
Then I got divorced.
I realized two things, looking close at these padawans' ages, abilities and what they needed from me now that I was the sole parent for so much time; one, they were good kids, and much more competent and wise than I had previously noticed and two, I could be a more balanced mom than I had been. Having someone who was always going to rile the kids and keep them up past bedtime meant my job was to NOT... but without him, I got to be the one to do it if I wanted to!
I liked that a lot.
So I 'got more happy', as Paris commented a few weeks after we all had been together as a little alt!family. I played more. More craziness, more silliness, and much more giggling; less strictness, less a taskmistress all the time, and WAY less abrupt stopping of the fun. Play is certainly my natural state, after all, as anyone who knows me as Skye (as opposed to 'mommers') knows.
SO. The story. The story of when Cai, my 6 year old crazy son, had to put the breaks on me. Yesterday.
I get dressed for school, get the kids up and dressed and fed, and leave at the same time they do: them to walk to school, me to drive to the bus. Yesterday it was typical Colorado fall weather - winter in the morning, summer during the day, and cool fall at night. So dressing for school, we all wear layers and modular clothes. My favorite changeable item of clothing this season is my long knit socks - and by socks, I mean two to-my-butt almost-tights. The great Fall thing about them is they turn into knee-high socks with a few rolls down, then slouch socks for mid-day, or they're warm and snug as tights, all the way up, when I'm headed home at 10pm. I <3 long socks!
ANYWAY (and I realize I've lost all the boys already), yesterday morning I was telling Maddie and Syd and Cai how I had on AMAZING INCREDIBLE SOCK TIGHTS.
"Let's see!" said Maddie, and Syd added, "Let's see! Let's see!"
I wouldn't have if Paris had been around - a 13 year-old does not need to see his mother's underwear. But since it was just the girls, and Cai's still a baby and doesn't hardly even care about that whole boy-girl difference...
I hiked my skirt up, showing my white knit just-under-my-buttocks tights and my white underwear... with a Picachu doing a thundershock on the tiny triangle butt.
And then? I did a bumpershow, wiggling my butt and doing a little dance in place while singing, "These are A-MAAAAZ-ING, I am A-MAAAAZ-ING... Thundershock, WHOO! I love my socks, WHOO!!"
I thought Maddie and Syd were going to DIE, they were laughing so hard. Syd actually sat right down on the kitchen floor, she was laughing so much!
Cai did laugh, but then he stopped my dancing with a stern, "Mom!"
I stopped dancing, lowered my skirt, and bent over to talk to him.
"What, Cai?" I said, "Aren't those cool socks? And hellooooo thundershock Picachu!"
"MOM, you just... you have..." Cai said, trying to compose his thoughts in so odd a situation as this was to him. He's a kind child, careful what he says, but not finding the right words he gave up diplomacy.
"Mom," he said, finally, "Mom, that was INAPPROPRIATE! I ALMOST SAW YOUR PRIVATES!!!"
Oooooooh dang. NOT a baby, was my Cai. And now I was in trouble.
I tried to recover.
"Oh no, Cai, I have underwear on..." I said, attempting to move my actions from inappropriate back to silly. But I realized then that privates and underwear were almost the same thing, to a small boy that knows the difference between girl underwear and boy underwear.
I looked around at Syd, still on the floor giggling, "Thundershock! Thundershock!" as Maddie did an imitation of my bumpershow dance, singing "...amaaaazing! Amaaaazing!" and knew I couldn't recover now.
Cai snickered. "You have Picachu on your underwear..." he snorted, and turned to go up the stairs, yelling, "PARIS! GUESS WHAT MOMMERS DID..."
Oooooooh dear; Now I was in BIG trouble!