good enough parent confession #4: off the reservation

The other day our 3 year old came 6 inches from walking off the curb into an oncoming car.

Our oldest ran after him, yelling

STOP!

Neither were far from me so I was able to lunge sideways to push our eldest back at his chest and catch our youngest before he left the curb but it was not soon enough for the driver to have confidence. 

As I grabbed our youngest's arm, my peripheral vision caught sight of the car swerving into the center lane and my ears were assaulted by its horn.

{thud, stop, thud, stop, thud, stop, thud}

I thought my heart might explode.

Instead, 

I held him in my arms & walked calmly through the crosswalk as he scolded me for holding his arm "too tight."

Earlier that day, our 9 year old asked a friend to join us for a play date and they proceeded to be the most demandy-pants, self-centered, entitled duo on the planet {true to age}  For instance, they got kicked out of the gift shop and spent the rest of their museum time pining to return and plotting ways to spend their {parents'} money. 

It was our first day of summer and I had been looking forward to hanging out with both boys - doing something fun to start the season off right.  But, I should have known it was going to be this kind of a day when it started with poop on the wall and a tearful search for "the perfect outfit." 

Maybe we should have called the whole thing off but, being the glutton I am, I decided to forge ahead with our plan for a playdate and lunch.

It was only noon and I was dreaming of returning to bed. 

Dude, usually only one kiddo goes off the reservation at a time but here, on this day, it took them less than a morning to wander off together {into oncoming traffic, no less}

Photo by: www.margaretclairephotoraphy.com

We returned home and I was counting the moments until nap time while trying to keep my voice as "normal" as possible in the process.  Which, I knew was a big fat "mom fail" when I walked into the bathroom to remind our youngest to pee into the toilet {not the floor} to find he had both hands over his ears.

Good Enough Parent Confession number four:

Sometimes my children go off the reservation and...

I go with them.

We wander through the wilderness of disorder & raised voices & communication fails,

in need of a nap or a time out in order to gather our bearings.

On this particular day, we needed both.