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Parenting Win of the Week: The Pivot
A little bit of adaptability can go such a long way.
chuckcollier
If anything, the past two (!!) years have taught us that we need to be able to pivot. But I know as we have finally gotten back into our routines as a family, it's been nice not having to do as much of that.
Enter a rude awakening when my son, who had been BEGGING me to promise that he would be there on the 100th day of school, found himself home sick on — you guessed it — the 100th day of school.
Of course, I had previously said he would be there since there was seemingly no reason he wouldn't be...and then I had to swallow my words.
So once again, we had to pivot.
I admittedly had a moment to freak out (and be sad that I couldn't dress him up as a little old man and send him off to school), but then I went into full camp counselor mode. This is the mode that brings out fun mom!
With the help of my older son, who had a moment of sympathy for his brother, we thought of the idea to make pancakes for breakfast. I used my trusty squirt bottle to draw out the number 100 and I learned that I should stick to writing, not pancake art. However, my son did not see that. All he saw was a very special breakfast on a Tuesday.
That morning, I quickly texted a handful of neighbors to throw something random on their lawn so we could do an outdoor scavenger hunt. A rare break in the cold weather, we trekked outside to find that my awesome neighbors had put out everything from bags of candy with 100 on them to coloring sheets, and fun things to spot like wizard hats. They really came through in short order!
And for the first time in a long time, I actually felt like a good mom. I know there have been other moments, but changing around a situation where your kid goes from feeling really sad to feeling beyond happy is a really good accomplishment.
It took only an hour out of my workday to make him feel on top of the world, so I will take that as a parenting win. It’s also a good reminder that sometimes the small stuff makes the biggest difference.
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