A Sign That I Am Doing Something Right?

Life has been heavy around here lately. The stresses of life have consumed my conversations with my spouse. Tensions run high and patience run short because unfortunately though we know better, sometimes that is the easiest way to deal with things.

All these stressful conversations of our financial concerns, job hunting, and our future here in our hometown..

...but....

There is these pauses in between all this chatter ....and it is the chatter of our children.

They make us smile. I love hearing their conversations between one another, their conversations around the dinner table, their conversations one on one.

It takes you away from life and and distracts you from your burdens.

I listen to them share things about school. It always start with, "MOM! Guess what happened at school, it was way cool!"...and then it is followed by telling me about a kid that fell and "CRACKED" there head all the way open, or a kid puking in the lunchroom, or maybe the power going off, or the fire alarm going off and  how they all got to stand on the playground forever but in reality it was probably 15 minutes. Stories about library time, P.E., and computer lab are told in great detail by the five year old because everything experienced by my kindergartner is comparable to a visit to Narnia.

Dinner time is usually dominated by the five year old sharing stories of...well...half the time we don't know what she is talking about, but whatever she is saying is usually entertaining because of her dramatic flair for acting out everything she says. I have come to the conclusion it has been good dinner conversation when one of the twins announces their drink came up their nose because they were laughing so hard.

One on one time with our children is usually  a time for them to to narc each other out, which I find funny because it is usually just the minor things they have done not the big things. I suppose they think if they narc each other out for the minor things repeatedly it will make the bigger things less...big?!! I always find it funny that if you take just one of them with you to run an errand..especially the twins....they talk nonstop. I suppose they feel it is their time, their platform, their time to let go of everything, and they won't be interrupted by a sibling. You also realize that they are close and do look out for each other in their quirky ways. If we stop for a treat all of them will ask if we are going to take something home for the others...they want to make sure the others are not left out of all the fun.

Here's the thing..... what I have learned about this kid chatter....we are doing an okay job as parents...you know why?

Even though we have all these stresses in our life.....the kids...

.. their chatter has not changed, their giggles and laughter have not changed...they have continued going on as though nothing is wrong...as they should be.

...and for that reason I say kudos to us!

These job troubles, financial stresses, and school things do not concern them...these are mom and dad things...adult things....not kid things. When I see parents carry these stresses down to their children I cringe. They understand money is a little tight right now so we can't do some of those extra things but they don't need grand details of everything.

What a short amount of time we have in our life span to be care free...to have the most eventful event in our day involve a kid burping the alphabet in class...or being able to spend a family dinner discussing how Santa can make it around the world in one night.

As a parent you are always worried if you are doing the right thing, setting the right example, saying the right thing.

I hope this an example that we are doing something right.  We are providing an environment where they can just be kids and I would not want it to be any other way.

So amidst all my self appointed parental failures...

...at least we get a gold star for this one!