The Why-Not Mom Goes to the Creek

[FelipesMom]

We spent the weekend at my parent's farm, farther north than here and also at a higher altitude. Came home around 2:00 yesterday and - boom! - it was hot! I mean hot - like, take off these clothes and give me a Tshirt and sandals hot! This was crazy b/c we had spent Saturday throwing snowballs into my parents' creek, and on the way home yesterday our plan to go for a run along the river had been thwarted by my inability to run on solid ice and snow!

So... we got home, threw our stuff into the house, and went straight to the park. Felipe split his time there into three chunks: first he ran indiscriminately around the park for quite a while, then we played in the creek, and then we got his bike out of the car and he rode it around.

The creek was the most fun. He hasn't ever really played in the creek - we play near creeks, but never really in one. This time we were looking down from the bridge, and there were several other (clearly hippie) children on the rocks in the creek, having all kinds of muddy dangerous fun. So down we went - I held his hand and told him over and over again "Think about where you're putting your feet!!" until we got to a nice kind-of-flat rock out in the middle of the water. He squatted there and poked around at the sticks in the creek, then threw rocks in, then asked a bigger kid for one of his "fat" sticks and used it to stir the water and poke things.

It was fabulous. And the best part was that we were right under the bridge, and the park was packed, so there were about a million other kids and their parents looking down at us as they crossed the bridge - and about every other family had this conversation:

Kid: I wanna go play in the creek!
Parent: No, you're not going down there!

...sometimes the kid didn't even get a chance to ask - the parents took one look, knew what their kids would think, and said no. So I guess this isn't really  a good thing - not for those kids - but I loved my role! I loved being the mom that let her little kid do what none of the other parents would even think about. :o)

[MamaMulder]

Jan. 19, 2010 at 2:59 PM

Fun! Good for you, mama! I wish we were there playing in the creek with you!! :) :)

[mb_dolphin]

Jan. 19, 2010 at 6:01 PM

a why not mom is exactly who i want to be, too. :)

[Guaranteed]

Jan. 27, 2010 at 1:22 PM

If you go back to the creek, you should play our favorite creek-game "Pooh Sticks" (from winnie the pooh), and drop some sticks to race from one side of the bridge to the other.

I find that as Andres gets older and his cognitive skills develop, it is easier and easier to be a "why not" mom.