The Harrowing/Heartwarming Parent Moment of the Week
I bust open an old box of books that my mom found hidden at her house. Inside are a bunch of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries. But the boys are most impressed when they crack open one of the Nancy Drews to discover that the pages have been cut out of the middle to make a secret compartment. It is just the right size to house a Swiss army knife. Hmmm…perhaps my brother and I had read too many mysteries by the time we were their age.
While I was blogging last week, I heard a strange noise. I looked over and noticed that the boys had pushed the dinning room table all the way across the floor and into the kitchen, with one of them riding on top as though it were a steam ship. Hmmm…less blogging and more policing perhaps?
But the winner this week…
I was reluctant to let the boys play in the tree fort at my grandparents without me there to…wrangle them. The Hunky Hubby encouraged me to give them a wee bit of freedom, certain that they would not cause trouble. I went down to have tea with my grandmother and told the boys that they could either play at the sports court or at the tree fort. This ‘freedom’ thing is hard on us mothers. But really, many times they have done well. This time they climbed the tree fort together and were having a wonderful time. When I was done with tea I came out and found them playing happily together. The game: One boy stood on the ground using an old metal saucer sled as a shield. He held this shield up over his head (and it was a good thing too). Because the other two boys had found some short boards and were hurling them down from the tree fort upon the shielded boy in some kind of areal assault. Once all of the boards had been launched, the shielded boy put down his shield and proceeded to hurl all of the boards back at his brothers in the tree fort. Then the game was then repeated. Am I the only person on the planet who is concerned by this? “Mom, we were using a shield!” They informed me when I mentioned the inherent dangers of throwing heavy objects at one another. I am boring…there is no way around it.
