Because I work for this high-falutin' fancy-shmancy law firm, I have access to events I otherwise would not get to attend. One of them I had the honor of attending last fall was a luncheon for working Moms.
To be fair, I was only invited because my office is next to the office of the woman who purchased the table for the event and someone else cancelled. She originally had sent out a survey to working Moms in the firm to get their feedback on whether or not the firm did everything it could to be "family friendly" and a number of those respondents were chosen at random to attend the luncheon. I would have responded to that survey, but I was on maternity leave! Anyway, long story short our firm was recognized as being one of the top family-friendly companies in the Milwaukee area and was going to be given an award at this luncheon...and I got to go.
The keynote speaker was Ann Dunnewold, author of Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box. Her message was simple: striving for perfection while working and raising children will drive you crazy. Aim for a B+.
I sat at that table and thought, "Doesn't everyone do that?!?"
I guess I decided when I went back to work after my first son was born that if I had to go back to work then other things were going to suffer. It works for us...there may be dishes in the sink, but the first hour after I get home every day is reserved for playing with my boys. Nothing more.
Fast forward to this week. It was one of those "off" weeks where instead of "doing the usual" every day, I had three days in a row of out-of-the-ordinary. Tuesday night I had yoga. Wednesday I went out to dinner with some of my work friends. Thursday I had a class so I worked late and we did a semi-fast-food dinner out.
On the way home on Tuesday night, I love rock 'n roll by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts came on the radio. I've mentioned before this is a favorite we sing quite often. But at three, Nick gets a lot of the words wrong and instead of "Put another dime in the juke box, baby" he sings something about babies having diamonds. I decided that along with pronouncing the "s" in front of words like "spoon" that he was old enough to be corrected and taught the correct lyrics.
"Honey, it's put another dime," I said.
"Put anudder dime..." he repeated.
"In the juke box, baby."
"In the ju-box, baby." The next verse was back to diamonds and babies.
Oh well.
Later that same night I was getting PJs on him and his brother when he pointed up to the smoke detector.
"MOM!" he said excitedly, causing me to leave his brothers' shirt over his face.
"What?"
"See that thing up there?" he asked, his brother yanking the shirt back over his head.
"Yeah, I see."
"It beeps if there's a fire. Then you get down on the ground like this," he said, quickly dropping down to his belly with more force and urgency than needed for a brief demonstration. "Then you yell, 'Mama! Daddy! There's a fire! I see smoke!'"
"Oh..." I was speechless.
"Then, you don't hide. You go to the door and you go outside. If there's no fire there. And then you go by the big tree and Daddy will find me."
My jaw was positively hanging.
"See?" He said happily, crawling to the door and pretending to open it and run outside.
"Who taught you that?"
"Daddy did."
"Oh."
I had no idea that my three year old was ready for things like fire safety. But dear old hubby did.
And boy did he have me feeling like a slacker!
1 comment:
Sometimes when I day dream about being a sahm I weigh out the pros and cons. I can totally relate to your feeling. Its great that he does know what to do in case of a fire. At moments like this I look at it as it really doesn't matter who taught him; it matters that he knows what to do in case of an emergency. I have a slacker mom story that happened recently too so I can relate to your feeling........
Recently while on vacation Austin had his first experience on a "big person" ride (as he calls it) known as a river rapid ride and low and behold him and I got hit with every single water fall and geyser that was along the way. It was our lucky day :0) When we got off the ride we were soaked and his older cousin said "Austin you got hit with every Geyser" and they were laughing. I said "he doesn't know what a Geyser is". He quickly corrected me and said "yes I do and then proceeds to tell all of us about Old Faithful and Yellowstone National Park. I was speechless withy my jaw dragging. He's only 5 and in pre-k. I said where did you learn that. He said "in school" like I'm the idiot. At about this point I did feel like the dumb one. I wanted to say "who are you and where's my son?"... haha.
So see we all have it happen at some point.
Sorry if I took up to much of your comment space.... LOL!!! Have a good weekend.
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