13 Nov A very special show and tell…
It had been a super busy day, as most days after a three day weekend are, and it was only 2/3 over. I left my car full of groceries in the parking lot as a I ran into get my son from preschool. I had a grand total of 4 minutes to get him, get back in the car, and get home before I needed to turn around to head to cheer practice. So needless to say, I did NOT have time to chat it up with anyone this particular afternoon.
As I walked up up the gate of the playground, one of the preschool teachers started walking toward me.. Ugh. There goes 8 of the 4 minutes I have. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love me a little chat time…but it just wasn’t in the schedule that I was already running behind for. But of course, I stop to talk because, hey, it’s the teacher and I’m not a total jerk.
“So, we saw Hank pull something out of his jacket today on the playground. He was passing it around to his friends, and we went over to take a look at what it was…”
“Oh?”
I of course started racking my brain about what it could be – especially since it seemed to be a little controversial by the tone and the way she was leading up to the ‘big’ reveal… Maybe a toy? No, that isn’t that big of a deal. Something dangerous? Ummm, maybe but they didn’t seem that scared about it. No, whatever this playground show-and-tell was seemed to have a little humorous undertone. Ok, let’s hear it…
“When we got up close, we realized he was holding a lace thong.”
“Ummmm….”
“And was showing it to all his friends. We put it in an envelope in his cubby for you.”
Holy. Dang. Cow. A pair of undies. And not just any undies, a lace and leopard print thong. And he was holding it up and dingle-dangling it around the whole playground. *smack forehead here*
A year ago, I would have been mortified by this. Like crawl in a hole for a week and send my husband to pick him up from now on mortified. But surprisingly (mostly to myself), I wasn’t. It was a realization into how much I have grown in confidence this year and am less worried about the ‘appearance’ of how I look as a mom to others and not as stressed out about people’s negative opinions. This of course was one small moment – but it was a small little victory.
I made a joke to the preschool teachers and I told them they were welcome for the bit of humor on a long Tuesday after a holiday. We laughed, and I went to collect my undie-envelope from my 3 year olds classroom.
I feel like this is something a lot of us moms deal with – worry about what our children do as a reflection of the quality of mom we are. But let’s be real. Kids do weird things. Kids say weird things. Kids wear weird things, even to church (which is a story for another day). Kids take their moms thongs to preschool in their jacket pocket. It’s just part of the territory as a mom to field these wacky endeavors and redirect them down the right direction. It isn’t a mirror as to how good of a mom we are or aren’t. And we need to not take these things on ourselves as such, or worry about what people will think of us when (and yes it is WHEN) our kids do kooky things.
When we got to the car, yes, I absolutely told Hank to check his pockets before he leaves the house and when he pulls a jacket out of the laundry basket – make sure there aren’t any ‘delicates’ in the pockets. And of course, expressed to him the lesson of not taking out undies and showing them to all his friends. (Yikes!)
As I held my envelope of underwear and drove away to do the rest of the day, one more thought popped into my head, yes they were some scandalous underwear that he was flashing around, but maybe that is better than a pair of big ol butt laundry day undies, I’m not sure. And bottom line, at least they were clean.