Yesterday my kids yelled "Stop sign Mommy!" as I casually slid through an intersection in our neighborhood. I mean, really, who stops all the way at the stop signs in neighborhoods? I never have before, but this mom will be now. At that moment I cringed at the thought of my future teenage boys getting pulled over for not stopping at a stop sign, then explaining to the cop that they learned the skill from me. They're already so observant, the little stinkers.
"Do as I say and not as I do." Of course that doesn't work one bit. A vice we'd like to have is all the more excusable when we've seen our parents possess the same vice. I can't expect it to be any different for my kids.
So now that I've decided I'm going to come to a complete stop at stop signs, I've realiezed there are actually several vices I've learned to hide since having kids.
The biggest one is eating sweets. At first I thought I could sneak a treat every now and then when they were awake, but kids can hear candy wrappers from a mile away. I don't know how they do it! If my kids got a candy, chocolate, ice cream, etc. as often as I'd like one they'd be eating sweets all day long. I LOVE desserts and I do wish I could eat them all day long. But alas, I have to sneak them when the kids are asleep.
Another one is cussing. Now, I don't walk around like a sailor, but a good cuss word can bring healing to my bones on a rough day. Problem is, it's usually the kids leading me to this desire and I can't cuss around them. The last thing I need is my 2 year old picking up on some h-e-doublehockeysticks and thinking it's funny (even though it is; but it really isn't). So I've learned to hide my cussing too.
Is hiding our vices a bad thing? I don't think so. At least not when our kids are little. Admitting our vices to our children when they're old enough to discuss them with us - that's a good thing. It's good for our kids to know we're human. Until then, I'll act like I enjoy stopping at stop signs.
