after a long saturday morning and afternoon that consisted of yard sales, bike rides, 2for1 sale at the BYU bookstore (thanks chels!), breakfast, snacks, lunch and snacks, an attempted, but failed, nap on my part, & a 3 hour long study session for ty, i found myself bringing lucy home from a play date to help me clean up the house. as we were walking across the street my friend christine stopped in front of our house.
"want to go to the duck pond?" she asked. i looked at lucy, thought of the mountains of laundry and toys that needed to be put away and said "sure! why not?". we rounded up all 5 girls into two strollers and took off with our week supply of bread crusts that hang in a bag from the laundry room door. the girls had a blast except for a few times that lucy complained there was no one "her age" there (i told her to suck it up). christine and i are both pretty laid back and gave the girls free reign of the botony pond. as they harassed the ducks, ran up and down the stairs, fell countless times, and screamed & tackled each other i knew they were happy. that's when i noticed a couple on a cute little blanket with a toddler boy sitting between them beating the grass with a stick. and then i noticed "it".
when i say "it" i mean, the look i get often from first time or only child parents. i know what "it" looks like because i am guilty of giving it in my former years. the squinted eyes, soft chuckles to each other and snickers after we would call out to some of the girls. "no, don't do that to each other!", "come down! that's too far!" "woops! you're ok!" "lucy!" "abby!" "kaylee!" "rachel!" "ava!" we yelled countless times. i don't know exactly what they were saying or thinking, but it wasn't hard to guess. my girls clothes didn't match, their hair was tousled from climbing up the hill, abby's allergy nose was running like crazy and i'm pretty sure lucy was purposely aiming for ducks' heads with the bread.
and i know that they thought we were irresponsible, careless, negligent parents. but who cares? i've learned that the old saying is true: don't judge a book by its cover. *and i'm fully aware that i am judging them for judging me*
even though from the outside my life looks crazy with three little girls who are constantly wearing mismatched clothes, scraped up knees and snivelly noses:
WE ARE HAPPIER THAN WE EVER HAVE BEEN.
now, if i could learn how to succesfully and consistently be a good mom AND get all of the other stuff done too-well, i'd write a book about it and sell over a 100 million copies.
eat that stephenie meyer.
3 comments:
I can't stand "the look". I know it well, too, and I was also probably once guilty of giving it. I'm pretty laid back in parenting as well and don't believe in hovering over my children every step they take. I've probably given "the look" to hover moms for the very same reason they give it to me. Oh well. I'll go to the duck pond anytime with you and your girls!
i think you should write a book anyway! the whole time i was reading that, i was like...haha she's funny, and this is entertaining! (remember how i don't like to read books that much? ya...) and yet you have entertained me. congratulations, i would read your books :)
And i would definitely buy that book!
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