I Hope You Dance

     We went to a free movie and concert at a local park yesterday.  Our city puts it on every year and it's something that we all look forward to.  The sky was heavy and grey with clouds, but the weather held out for us to enjoy dinner while listening to a pretty good (but very loud) band, the kids went on some bouncy houses and got their faces painted, and then we watched "How to Train Your Dragon" on a big blow up screen.  I was a little worried about how Mason would do, but he just crawled around on the blankets and over us, eating snacks and for the most part being a happy baby especially considering he was up three hours past his bed time.
       Before the movie started, we were enjoying the before mentioned band.  Little Man and Kiwi were dancing with their friends.  As I snapped pictures, I was struck with how freely and joyfully they moved their little bodies.  They dance because they want to, because it's fun.  They have not yet entered the big kid world of self-consciousness, self doubt, and embarrassment.  I wish I could bottle up the self confidence that they have now and save it for their teen-age years.
       That, of course, is an impossibility and all of us parents are left to try and figure out how to help these precious souls that we have entrusted with grow up into caring, component adults who know of their own self worth and that of others and understand that we are all precious children of our Heavenly Father.  But how do we do that?

     There is an overload of information out there about parenting and how to be a good parent.  As the years go by, I'm starting to realize that although it's always helpful to get good ideas from articles or bounce around suggestions in a play group, when it comes down to it, Mike and I parent the way that feels right to us.  I need to trust my instincts, trust my Heavenly Father who has given me these beautiful children, and trust that by trying my best and with His help things will turn out okay.

       I recently read a parenting article about how in the past it was assumed that we would mess up our kids by inattentive parenting, but now days parents can mess up their kids by being too attentive parents.  And while I did understand some of the points the article was making (I definitely believe in my children doing chores and in enforcing consequences) I can not help but make these children the center of attention.   They are little for only a short time and this is my one and only chance to have all my little ones in the nest.  And while I have them I am going to love them, hug them, kiss them, and tell them how amazing and wonderful they are every single day.  I know that experiencing disappointment and heartache are necessary and important parts of growing up.  But I don't think it needs to be at home, they will get more than enough of it as they start to venture out into the world.   They will discover on their own that there is always somebody smarter, faster, funnier out there, but when they are at home they will always be the smartest, fastest and funniest.  So I will praise and display pre-school art work like a treasure and I will cheer at elementary school soccer games as if it were the World Cup.  I realize that it would being doing a disservice to them and others to have them believe that they are the most important in the world, but I hope they always know that they are the most important people in the world to me.  Because everybody deserves to be the most important person to somebody.

      I hope that they always know that even though we make mistakes and that we are far too often not on top of it like when we take our baby to church with no extra clothes and then Mike has to miss Sunday School to bring the baby home and change him after he pees on himself (perhaps this happened today) that we love them.  And we feel like the luckiest parents in the world to have them in our lives.
     And so to my three babies, you are beautiful, you are smart, you are amazing little caring people who are very, very loved.  And I hope no matter what happens in life, that you never lose your ability to dance.

       

Kiwi's face makes me laugh in this picture.  She fell asleep during the movie and in the morning at no recollection of falling asleep or being transported home and into her bed.  She asked if she fell asleep watching "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatbulbs (her pronunciation)" which was last years movie.