"Pick your battles"

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard the term "pick your battles" since I've become a Mother. Each day I go over the phrase in my head when Little Man is up to no good. Then I have to repeat it with every situation... evaluate, and ask myself "is this worth the fight?". 


For example, Little Man climbing onto a laundry basket and opening the screen door... yes it's worth the battle because I don't want him to fly off the basket, out the door and hit his head on the cement. Little Man pulling out the pots and pans right after I've washed and put them away... eh- not worth the battle. Little Man poking the dogs in the eyes... yeah, that's worth the battle- I would rather my dogs not go blind. Little Man pulling the lint filter out of the dryer getting lint everywhere... not worth the battle- he's just trying to help and I can easily just pick the lint off everything as annoying as it may be. 


I try to stay consistent. I still struggle with situations, some days certain things annoy more than they would on another day. I try to stay sensitive to him because sometimes he's just trying to help as much as in the long run he's doing more harm than good. There is a balance that has to be learned in letting them explore and keeping them from accidentally harming themselves or someone else. Every day brings a new challenges when you are a parent, it's very rare that you get two days exactly alike. As our children learn everyday so do we. We learn our breaking points, we learn to let go, we learn what cleaner is best at taking out nasty stains in the carpet and we also discover what lengths we go to to keep our children safe. 


I try not to give advice to other parents, I remember sometimes how badly that got under my skin. But I will say pick your battles. It can lead to less nerves being rattled and a happier you and child!

Maybe I am a little over protective...

Yes, I hover over Little Man while we are out and am quick to remove him from situations in the blink of an eye. Some may label me as a helicopter Mom, over protective and a constant worrier. But I have my reasons.

Recently on a trip to Monkey Joe's, the place was more crowded than usual. There were some summer camps there for the day, which included a large group of rambunctious kids. Understandably so, during the summer kids need some A/C relief where they can run, jump and play in a large area. However- this particular group of kids had me questioning if they were fed a ton of sugar each before going in. Several kids from the group who were around 7 or 8 were going crazy in the toddler area (which is for kids under 3), jumping off the sides and knocking over the smaller kids. I looked around to see if I could find a chaperons for this group after removing Little Man from the area. I couldn't find anyone so I mentioned it to someone who worked there. The employee also could not find any of the chaperons for this group. This was extremely upsetting to me. The people that work at these places are there to ensure kids are safe, they are NOT babysitters. When you bring a child to a place like this, you are supposed to watch them, or at least check in on them OFTEN! The kids were removed from the toddler area but of course came back after a while.

Who ever was dressed up in the Monkey Joe costume had my sympathy. Kids were slapping this poor person on the butt, kicking and attempting to take it's head off. Again, no adults with the group intervened. I know that kids will be kids, but after being told to stop several times by employees they still were not listening.

After Little Man was knocked out of the way a few times while trying to get up a slide we decided to play in the game area for a while. We were having fun until some kids decided to take the basketballs from CJ while he was playing the "slam dunk" game. By this point I had had enough so we headed home.

While this is just one example of why I hover over Little Man to make sure he is okay and not causing trouble, it happens almost everywhere we go. People take their kids to places and just disappear. I know adults need a break, and kids need their freedom. But can't we find a middle ground?