Whatever you need to do to get yourself over the mental hump of pounding down the mountain side on two wheels and a chunk of aluminum I guess. And with signs like the one below, it’s probably a good philosophy…
It was true. I had a bad Captain America style going on. I hate it when they don’t rinse your hair out after the cut and then style it in a way that can only be done by another person, standing behind you.
These moments can be few and far between so when they do pop up ya gotta savour them.
I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about when he first launched into it. Colours and emotions were tossed about. There was evident contempt for having to spend time out of his busy day to talk about something that he’ll “never use”. The funny thing was, we had this great chat for over 10 minutes about how he’d spent his day. Far more detailed than the usual response:
Me: “How was your day?” Him: “Fine.” Me: “What did you do?” Him: “Nothing.”
Despite the sheen of negativity, it was clear he had been engaged and listening, because upon further research on my part, he had accurately explained the varying states of self-regulation as popularized by Leah Kuypers in The Zones of Regulation.
Tomorrow we work on self-reflection in an effort to spend more time in the green zone.
Snot season, I like it. It got me thinking that maybe we should just rename the whole winter/spring/summer/fall thing to the seasons that we parents really feel. I created a new “4 seasons” wheel below. If you agree, lemme know. If you think there is a more damning ailment for a particular season, lemme know that too!
After listing all the things that were on my plate, my thoughtful son said I should see a physiotherapist. He meant psychiatrist, however, after we had a wee chat about it, he decided an “Overwhelmapist” would be better as I was more overwhelmed by the sheer number of things I felt that I needed to accomplish than anything else. Does such a person exist? If so, please contact me asap.
The truth is I came close to swearing in the car when this little discovery was made. I didn’t, and while I was very clear about my frustration, I also made sure that everyone knew in the grand scheme of things this wasn’t a huge deal, and that if this was the biggest problem we had to overcome then we were pretty darn lucky. That’s the lot of being a parent right? Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone forgets something now and then (think about the number of times you’ve misplaced your wallet, your keys, your phone….). How could I possibly get mad at a kid who does so many things so well and with such maturity and thoughtfulness most of the time? Aren’t we really in a grand training exercise anyway? Isn’t it our job to prepare our kids as best we can so that they are competent, confident, functional adults when they leave us? If I have to occasionally drive an additional 50 kms to provide gear for a sports event, that ain’t such a hardship in the grand scheme of things. It’s the journey that should be enjoyed, not just the end goal right?
Just to be clear though, a new house routine will be enacted starting tomorrow that all materials for the following day must be laid and ready the night before… Keep your eye out for a future post about how well that is going.
The Art of Dad 