The kids and I just wrapped up a pretty awesome week. It still felt like it went by too fast.
I’m not sure I could articulate the contrast between this apartment when the kids are here and when they are not. It literally feels like an entire other place.
When I got home from taking the kids back to Mississippi, I grinned at their shoes in the closet.
My son, Aiden, has been leaving his shoelaces tied in a knot and sliding his foot in and out of the shoes. So, after I told him twice to unleash the shoes each time he takes them off, I decided to correct him with a little more imagination. I told him the next time he takes off his shoes and leave the laces tied, he will tie an untie each shoe 30 times. Yes, I didn’t start out with a low more reasonable number like 10 times; I went straight to 30. It’s extreme, but it seems to be working – see photo attached.
My daughter, Maddalyn, wants to wear her cherry Crocs everywhere while performing any activity. I don’t allow the kids to wear their Crocs outside of the house, by the way. When my daughter happened to wear her crocs to ride her bike, she found out the hard way that slip on or a terrible idea with the bike. Her left foot slipped off and found its way under her training wheel. It looked ridiculously painful, and she tried to power through like a champ before she walked into the house and put on her ASICS.
I’m fortunate. I’m blessed. My kids don’t have malice. They want to be kind. They ask about and point out when they see people behaving like a**holes. They’re not super easy, but they don’t make being their dad hard for me.