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.
3 comments:
love this. mine are eating random foods for breakfast (candy, twinkies, nothing...) when i make my kids eat... and fortunately my swearing is limited to my head (where they can't get in) like when i whack my toe really hard or something... but we were watching a movie where one character flipped the "bird" and i covered erin's eyes (but she peeked) and said "i didn't see anything bad... what did he do...?" to which I sighed and said "why didn't you just close your eyes like I told you to?" so I didn't have to explain... grr.
How come every one of your posts I always want to shout "AMEN, SISTER!" I'm going to agree with you on the sneaking treats and cussing. How come once we're old enough to be our own individual and cuss without our parents punishing us, it's glorious?! :)
You two are great! Thanks for commenting on my posts. It makes me happy to hear your sides too.
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