Hop like a bunny

Isn’t it funny how we make our kids do crazy things?  I remember a few months back, my husband was trying to teach my toddler how to walk like a penguin.  I laughed and said, “Why are you teaching her that? There are so many other things you can teach her.”  Ha!  He said, “I don’t know, because it’s funny.”  Our daughter can walk like a penguin with the best of them!

We had a birthday party on Saturday and during the party, I started laughing hysterically at the nonsense of it all.  All the kids were sitting on the red line, listening to the teacher…and the teacher told them to hop like a bunny.  Simple enough.  Right?  Wrong.  I hear my friend’s husband tell his son (the birthday boy) to hop like a bunny.  Next to me, is a good friend whose toddler WOULD NOT hop like a bunny.  “You don’t want to hop like a bunny,” she asked.  He shook his head as he held on to her leg.  I laughed!!  I can’t imagine why?!  Across the room I see all the other kids hopping like bunnies and it was literally too much to take.  These poor kids…some of them looked happy to be hopping like bunnies and others were forced by their parents to hop around with their two fingers on their head like bunny ears.  Dragging their ‘hops.’  Picking their nose in between hops.  I smiled because I was happy my daughter was hopping like a bunny and I didn’t have to even tell her to do it.  Ha!  The things we make our kids do—and the reasons we find parental enjoyment in them…??!?

Later on, they set up a little obstacle course and my toddler decides she is going to walk backwards up the stairs, instead of forward.  “Turn around,” I say.  Grrr….”Not over there…the line starts here,” I continue.  Sigh.  And then I look around the gym to see multiple kids dragging their parents here and there in between scattered conversations.  I hear other parents telling their kids to, “start here,”  “not like that, ““sit here,” etc...Etc…  It is hysterical.  We are trying so hard to make our children conform to the rules; to do it the right way…and it makes me think how hard parenting can be.  There are thin, fine lines EVERYWHERE!  Day to day rules that must be followed, EVERYWHERE!  We have an enormous job to do on a daily basis and it is exhausting.  From one thing to another…I find myself constantly shouting out rules and regulations…

That afternoon at the birthday party, “Don’t throw that ball out of the ball pit” (Oh yes she did)…

Then, we went to the grocery store.  “Don’t run down that aisle…”

After that, we went the nursery to pick up flowers, “don’t pick up that potted plant…”

At home, “Don’t jump on my bed with your shoes on….”

What I really want to do is stop shouting rules all day long and just let it be.  There are times when we should let our children run free.  No rules.  No holds bar… They need to be kids and I need a break from myself, my voice, and life’s rules. 

My daughter kept throwing the balls out of the ball pit at the birthday party and I finally just turned my head.  I wasn’t going to watch.  Just do it, I thought.  They can pick them up later.  They won’t hurt anyone, they are just plastic.  Just do it.  Be a kid.  I turned away and let it go.  If the teachers get mad, I’ll pretend I had no idea what was going on.  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I would say. “I had no idea.”  And then I’ll make her come out of the ball pit for good measure.  Luckily, it didn’t come to that.  Nobody was even the wiser….

Then, I decided to let it go a little further.  Dinner time was later than usual…bath was even later…and bed time was an hour behind.  Whatever?!  I already shouted rules out to my daughter all day long.  So at night, she could hop like a bunny if she liked, sit like a bump on a log, twirl in circles for an hour, or lay on the floor with her legs in the air.  I don’t care.  I like to forget about the rules; to let it all go; to let her live...and she did.  And then when it was time to go up to bed, she went without a fight and said, “It was a good day Mom.”