Lessons in Mud

 It was a warm Spring like afternoon when I let the kids out into the backyard to play. The snow had all but melted leaving ice and puddles everywhere. I was busy nursing Finley in the front room when I heard shrieking and uncontrollable giggling coming from the backyard. I quickly finished up and place my sleeping baby in his little rocking chair. I went out to find the older two children having a mud fight in the garden. I may have let out a little chuckle before my blood started to boil. It had been a rough morning and I had spent most of our Saturday trying to get the house back in order by vacuuming and folding endless loads of laundry. I was already feeling overwhelmed and the thought of washing one more thing infuriated me. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry at this point. Thankfully when I opened the door I heard our neighbor shoveling off his deck which gave me the few seconds I needed to collect myself and deal with the situation without raising my voice. My first instinct was to scold and be angry and make them come inside but that really wasn't fun for anybody. It made me feel like a horrible mother for not letting them have fun and it made them feel badly when they really weren't doing anything wrong. If you ask my mother I'm pretty sure I've had my fair share of playing in the mud.

After apologizing for being upset with them I decided to grab my camera and let them go at it. And ya know what? I may have even laughed and had a bit of fun myself. It wasn't long before my arms were splattered with specks of mud, but seeing the smiles on their faces made it worth it. I want my children to be able to experience childhood to it's fullest. I want them to be able to explore, make mistakes, get messy, and have fun. Sometimes it's super hard to live in the moment and suppress the anger that comes from thinking about the mess and how I'm going to clean it up or if their behavior is acceptable. But then I go back to this post on discipline and those three important questions echo in my mind. Am I asking them to stop out of annoyance? Is it hurting anyone? Will this negatively affect their future? When I remember these three questions I act more out of love than I do out of emotion and it really makes our home a happier place. It's going to take me a long time to become perfect at this though, it's hard.

After they had their fill of mud, I ran them a nice warm bath and let them play in it in their swim suits. In the end we were all a lot happier (and I didn't have to bath them before bed)! A fun and messy afternoon had by all!