The kids and I live with my mom, it’s not your typical living with parent situation. It’s more of a roommate situation, we split most things down the middle such as rent. She’s got her monthly financial obligations, and I’ve got mine.. Of course there are times when there’s grey areas, such as groceries and going out for a meal.
Occasionally we’ll split the bill down the middle, however most of the time one of us will just pay the whole thing. There’s no set arrangement for it, one time she’ll pay and another time I’ll pay we don’t keep track.
Since we live together as you can imagine, we spend quite a deal of time together. So this afternoon when my mom said she wasn’t feeling well, I took it as an opportunity to take the kids out for supper alone. It wasn’t anything extravagant, I simply took the kids out to Swiss Chalet.It was an awesome time, the kids told me about their day at school and what they did. They told me about the latest “gossip” going on in their group of friends, who they like and who their having issues with. The conversation was occasionally random, but they were completely engaged and excited to tell me.
These are things I usually hear them saying to each-other, despite them fighting like cats and dogs they love each-other and talk often. Of course when someone else is with you, your attention is divided between them and the kids. I guess the kids just noticed I was able to be more attentive to what they were saying, so they were eager to share it with me.
I’m sure there are plenty of things they talk about with my mom, and other adults in their lives that they don’t share with me. That doesn’t bother me though, because I know that they know I’m there for them when they really need me. Sometimes it’s awkward talking to your parent about certain things, so when they ask their Mémé about stuff I’m grateful.
I’m grateful that they’ve got someone who they can trust to ask besides me, and it’s someone who I trust as well. Sometimes I might not know how to answer their question(s), and my mom’s got decades of experience raising me and my siblings so she might know.Ever since my kids were young, I’d always take multiple pictures of them. They certainly aren’t camera-shy, unless their grumpy. So when they ask if we can take some pictures, I don’t even hesitate I put away my insecurities and take the darn picture anyway because it means something to them.
For every happy picture of the kids you’ll usually either find a silly face one, a “sad” one, or even a “mad” one. It’s the compromise more like bribe, I manage to use to convince the kids to sit still for a picture. Wanting to get their picture taken isn’t enough motivation for them to sit still, but if I tell them they can do a silly face, etc picture they’ll usually sit pretty still.
The lesson here is spend time with your kid(s), take time alone with them just you and them. There’s so much stuff you could learn, or even notice about them. Sometimes it might seem like little things, but often it’s the little things that turn out to be the big things.