Tales of childhood shoes

One of my favorite pics- the muddy, worn shoes of a very active, fun loving, adventurous boy! I hope that when my kids are grown they remember the tales of those shoes. Tales of muddy puddles, soccer and football in the rain, climbing trees, hide n seek in the woods, frog hunting…...

I say yes to “mom can we play in the rain?” or “mom can we go jump in the muddy puddles?” or “mom can we finger paint?” or “mom can we play in the pond?” I say yes because I want to fill my kids childhood memory book with TONS of wonderful memories and model a parenting behavior that they will hopefully repeat when they are dads. I also say yes because the reasons I would say no are solely due to my desire to keep things orderly and clean. Finally , I say yes for selfish reasons. As adults we let our sense of wonder and simple joys (like bubbles =) I LOVE bubbles!) get lost in the craziness of work, schedules, bills, etc and since "mommying" is hard we NEED those trips back to the land of childhood fun! We parent stronger when our happy/love tank is FULL. I encourage you to say YES to jumping in muddy puddles AND to join in on the fun! Sure, yes will lead to a definite bath night, extra laundry and some muddy footprints but all of those will be “expenses” well worth the priceless gift of giggles, smiles, and joy enjoyed by both your kiddos and you!

I recently hung this picture in my mudroom as a reminder to my kids to seek out these moments and as a reminder to me to encourage these moments! While the “lessons’ we teach our kids will mold them into the individuals they will grow up to be, so do all the childhood moments of being a kid- we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of that!