The Day The Kids Were in Charge

As a general rule, mom's say, "no, not now, maybe another time, I don't think so, I'll think about it, probably not, we can't today, etc, etc..." all the time.  Kids live in the present time and adults spend most of their time in the past or the future which gives us all kinds of reasons to say no to their requests.  But every once in a while I like to join the girls in their present-ness.  I let them direct the entire day, make the decisions, decide what to do, where to go, what to eat, and make the  million other split second decisions that happen in the day.  All within reason of course.  Because once you've become a responsible adult it truly is impossible to forget the lessons learned from the past and to ignore how the consequences of your your present actions will impact your future. No matter how much I wanted to live entirely in the present with my girls for just one day, no matter how much fun it would be to spend their entire college savings at the dollar store, once an adult, always an adult.

So when I posed the question to them, "What do you want to do today?" I wasn't bombarded with a list of "I want to do this, and this and this." Nope.  Their brains operated differently.  They were linear in their thinking.  It was one thing at a time.  One thing led to the next depending on their internal state.  So when I said, "What do you want to do?"  Their response was, "we want to go to a restaurant for lunch."  Makes sense to me since they had slept the morning away and it was nearly lunchtime. They probably were hungry.  And so it began.  The day the kids were in charge...

Where do you want to go for lunch?

Subway.  Sandwich, chips and a cookie.  And we will sit at the tall stools that mom never wants to sit at!

After lunch we headed out onto Main Street and just as I was about to ask what we were going to do next, we bumped into Grandma.

Mom, can we go shopping with Grandma?  Sure.

Mom, can we try flying a kite today? Sure.

Girls, our friends just sent us a text inviting you to their house to play.  Do you want to go?
Mom, can they come kite flying with us instead? Sure.

Four kids and four kites and we were ready to go.  Funny how the wind seems to stop as soon as you're ready to fly a kite.  

Mom, we're hot from running with the kites.  Can we go swimming?  Sure.
Can we have chocolate bars? Sure.
Can we go to the park? Sure.
Will you watch us play gymnastics?  Sure.




What's next girls?
Can we go for ice cream?  Sure.
Hey look mom, can we go for a walk on that Boardwalk?  Sure.

It's time to take our friends home now.
Mom, we're going past Grandma and Papa's house.  Can we stop and show Lexi the bird's nest? Sure.

It's home time girls.  The sun is going down.
Can we have a swim in our pool?  Sure.
Can we watch a movie at that place in the forest you were talking about?
You mean you want to go to see your first Drive-in movie?  Sure.

Is it straight to bed when we get home mom?  
It sure is!