One day when my son was small I was cleaning the kitchen when he ran up. He was stripped to the skin and clearly indignant. “You have to come! It’s wrong!” he yelled then stomped off, his bare bottom twitching angrily.
I followed him into the bathroom and sighed. There in all its glory was my current nemesis: the bathroom scale. My son was fascinated by it and loved stepping on and off holding things.
He pointed at it and complained “I farted and the numbers were the same. How come Momma? How come farts don’t make it change?” he stepped back on the scale and scrunched up his face. Then he stepped off and looked at me.
“I can’t fart no more Momma. You try.” I was desperately trying not to laugh when I told him I didn’t have to either. But of course the how come didn’t go away.
I told him that I didn’t know either but I’d find out. Then I asked him how much his breath weighed. That distracted him from fart weight and he spent several minutes jumping on and off the scale while inhaling and exhaling. When he was finally done with his experiment he announced that his breath was farts because it didn’t change either.
Living with kids is an adventure if you let it be. The world is full of things to wonder and find out.
A few days later I gave into the curiosity and looked it up. If you are interested too here’s one answer. Now we all know more about the science of something none of us had ever thought about.
Wondering about the everyday is just one lesson my kids taught me. Here are some others.
Imagination is key
We went to the park one day and he climbed into his favorite swing. Normally he wants me to pull him back as far as I can so he can whoosh far into the sky, screaming in delight. On that day he shook his head and wanted small pushes. When I asked why he said, “I don’t want to be a spaceship today Momma. This is a boat of the ocean. We have to go under water careful.” He told me about all the buttons he had to push in order to slip under the sea. Then he said “you tell me!” So I made up a story about a Boy Captain who went under the ocean to find his favorite toy. The merman he had played with the night before had taken it away after all.
When he was ready to get off the swing he ship surfaced and my son jumped off. He was ready for the next park item on his list — the slide. That was the first time in a very long while that I’d made up anything. I’d been too busy taking care of us, seeing that he was fed, worrying about everything. The little story wasn’t much, but it was also everything. It helped me start thinking about the parts of myself that I had neglected.
Letting your creativity bloom and spark can bring you joy — more if you share it with someone. And if your routine gets stale, shake it up a little. You can still find happiness even in the every day.
Adventures Everywhere!
At the time the area we lived in was not good. The trash dumpster wasn’t far at all, but I wouldn’t leave him alone when I went.
Normally he complained about having to stop whatever he was playing, but on this day he ran to his room and grabbed a hat and an old pair of binoculars we’d found in a thrift store. He gave me the hat and started marching towards the door, “we’re going on an adventure, adventure adventure…going to see some things!”
That boring walk to the trash can normally took 5 minutes. Our adventure walk took 30. We looked at bugs and the grass through the binoculars, and how far we could see. we looked at the birds and we laughed at silly things.
And yep, I learned that adventure in the everyday is just as memorable as somewhere exotic. We still talk about adventuring to the trash to this day.
Some Things Are Worth Fighting For
One day I got a call from the daycare. My five year old was in trouble. I drove there as fast as I could. He was sitting in the manager’s office, fuming. His little face was screwed up in stubborn anger. I took a seat and braced myself — what had he done?
“I hit him with a chair. I’m not sorry either!” My son declared, then glared at the manager. I was just flabbergasted. What? Why? After some prying, the story came out. The daycare also took care of elementary age kids. One of the older boys was a bully to the tiny kids. My son had apparently put up with it when he was being picked on, but when the bully put his hand up a girl’s dress…well…that was that. He picked up a chair, hit the bully with it twice, then got the teacher.
I pulled my son from that school the same day. So did the little girl’s. The school obviously wasn’t paying close enough attention. The girls parents gave my son a huge basket of candy as a thank you. That made the conversation hard of course. We had to talk about escalation and trying to tell adults first. But in the back of my mind I had to admit…If I found a person much bigger than me assaulting a very young girl like that I’d probably do what he did.
Seeing the world through my son’s eyes taught me to open up to the wonder in everything…even farts, which apparently almost weigh nothing.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Jordan Whitt on Unsplash
