Image stolen from Lara
The week before Christmas I went out to lunch with a friend of mine, Lara.
Her oldest daughter came to my house and watched my children.
Her oldest son, aka Muscles, came with us.
He did not sit and eat with us though.
(Don't worry we fed him pizza before we left)
So what did he do while we enjoyed a quiet table for 2 and over an hour of uninterrupted mommy talk?
He took his new born baby brother and walked around the gift shop and surrounding areas so his mom could enjoy her lunch.
Just as we were finishing our meal the baby woke up, so Muscles brought him to their mom.
We then left the restaurant and stopped for gas on the way home.
Muscles took his mom's credit card and hopped out of the nice warm van and into the frigid winter air.
He proceed to pump her gas while we continued to chat away all nice and cozy in the heated van.
The thing is, she did not even have to ask him to do that. We pulled up and he just did it.
Then we decided to stop at Costco for a few last minute Christmas items.
The baby was hungry so Muscles grabbed the shopping list and headed inside.
We sat in the van while the baby nursed and we had even more adult conversations.
When the baby was done eating we went in Costco to find Muscles with a full cart all ready to check out.
We grabbed a few samples and headed to the checkout stand.
We were there for less than 10 minutes.
My jaw wanted to just hit the ground.
This man child is only 12 years old.
He acted more like an adult.
I was so amazed at how helpful and competent we was.
And he did it all so willingly and happily.
I need one of those in a bad way.
It was like having a personal nanny and personal shopper all in one.
We just sat back and enjoyed the afternoon.
So I have been thinking a lot since our day out.
I need my children to be just like The Lazy Organizer's children.
And I am starting to train them NOW!
I have decided that the next time we go to Costco I will give them each a list of things to get. I'll walk up and down the main isles and let them go get the items from whichever isles they are located and bring them to the cart. This way I can watch them the whole time and they learn to be my personal shoppers.
That way, when they're teenagers they'll be ready to go in and fill my cart and all I'll have to do is go in to pay.
Plus I think Abby's old enough to learn to pump gas, don't you?
I have been thinking about all the little things I do day to day that the kids could be doing.
Sometimes I tend to be a control freak and have to do it all myself, the right way!
But then I started thinking, what is that teaching my children?
It's teaching them to sit back and have meals served to them 3 times a day 7 days a week.
I have always liked cooking, so I don't mind that one at all, but I really want to teach them to love it as well.
Even Mr Bird says he can't cook with me because I just take over and have to do everything my way.
Some how I have to figure out how to let my kids take over some of the kitchen responsibilities.
Sure they do their chores and school work on a daily basis, but there are so many more things I could be exploiting from my children:).
I need to hang out with Lazy much more often and see how she developed these habits in her children.
Maybe I should just move in with her for a few weeks!
I'm sure she would not mind training my children right along side hers, right?
Her oldest daughter came to my house and watched my children.
Her oldest son, aka Muscles, came with us.
He did not sit and eat with us though.
(Don't worry we fed him pizza before we left)
So what did he do while we enjoyed a quiet table for 2 and over an hour of uninterrupted mommy talk?
He took his new born baby brother and walked around the gift shop and surrounding areas so his mom could enjoy her lunch.
Just as we were finishing our meal the baby woke up, so Muscles brought him to their mom.
We then left the restaurant and stopped for gas on the way home.
Muscles took his mom's credit card and hopped out of the nice warm van and into the frigid winter air.
He proceed to pump her gas while we continued to chat away all nice and cozy in the heated van.
The thing is, she did not even have to ask him to do that. We pulled up and he just did it.
Then we decided to stop at Costco for a few last minute Christmas items.
The baby was hungry so Muscles grabbed the shopping list and headed inside.
We sat in the van while the baby nursed and we had even more adult conversations.
When the baby was done eating we went in Costco to find Muscles with a full cart all ready to check out.
We grabbed a few samples and headed to the checkout stand.
We were there for less than 10 minutes.
My jaw wanted to just hit the ground.
This man child is only 12 years old.
He acted more like an adult.
I was so amazed at how helpful and competent we was.
And he did it all so willingly and happily.
I need one of those in a bad way.
It was like having a personal nanny and personal shopper all in one.
We just sat back and enjoyed the afternoon.
So I have been thinking a lot since our day out.
I need my children to be just like The Lazy Organizer's children.
And I am starting to train them NOW!
I have decided that the next time we go to Costco I will give them each a list of things to get. I'll walk up and down the main isles and let them go get the items from whichever isles they are located and bring them to the cart. This way I can watch them the whole time and they learn to be my personal shoppers.
That way, when they're teenagers they'll be ready to go in and fill my cart and all I'll have to do is go in to pay.
Plus I think Abby's old enough to learn to pump gas, don't you?
I have been thinking about all the little things I do day to day that the kids could be doing.
Sometimes I tend to be a control freak and have to do it all myself, the right way!
But then I started thinking, what is that teaching my children?
It's teaching them to sit back and have meals served to them 3 times a day 7 days a week.
I have always liked cooking, so I don't mind that one at all, but I really want to teach them to love it as well.
Even Mr Bird says he can't cook with me because I just take over and have to do everything my way.
Some how I have to figure out how to let my kids take over some of the kitchen responsibilities.
Sure they do their chores and school work on a daily basis, but there are so many more things I could be exploiting from my children:).
I need to hang out with Lazy much more often and see how she developed these habits in her children.
Maybe I should just move in with her for a few weeks!
I'm sure she would not mind training my children right along side hers, right?
2 comments:
Work those kids!! Ha, ha, you are so funny! The trick is to get them to do all those thing whilst thinking they are a privilege!
Seriously, though, he is an amazing man child. He asked me on the way to town today if he could buy his own house when he's an adult. (He means when he's a fourteen year old that acts like an adult.) I said yes and he could park it in the back yard. He thought that was a great idea.
I told him he is going to have trouble finding a wife that wants to live in a camper trailer. He said all he has to do is write one love song and he will have girls lining up to marry him, camper trailer and all. I agreed that is probably true.
Then he proceeded to write this song. Maybe you can get him to sing it for you tomorrow.
I'm gonna live in an R, V.
I need someone to love, me.
We won't have any mon, ey,
But we're gonna eat health, y.
Does that make you swoon or what??
My mom trained us that way. I can't even imagine letting her pump her own gas.
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