Saturday, January 08, 2011

Yes-Mom

I like being a Yes-Mom.  I love when my kids throw out random requests and neither time nor resources impedes me from saying, emphatically, "YES."

Yesterday was a Yes-Mom day.  After dropping Caleb off at school Isaac and I had some errands to run.  But, none of our destinations opened until 10 am and I didn't want to go all the way home just to head back out moments later.  So, we had some time to kill.  On our way out of the city, we passed one of 17,000 McDonald's.  Isaac pointed to it and said, "We should go to Old McDonald's (that's what he calls it) and you eat some food and I will play."  Remembering 1) how much he LOVES to play at Old McDonald's and 2) that I skipped breakfast, I said, "YES! let's do that."

And, we did.  We ordered two yogurt parfaits ('cause they're, ahem, healthy), a sausage mcmuffin ('cause you never know how hungry Isaac is going to be once he sees food -- and, true to form, he ate the whole thing), and a large hot chocolate.  The dining area was packed with the over 65 crowd, reading newspapers, sipping coffee and chatting with neighboring diners.  But, the play area, was a ghost-town.  We ate our food while Isaac sat in the lap of the plastic, life-sized Ronald McDonald and I sat next to them on the bench.

Then it was time to play.  But, he didn't want to play alone, that was immediately clear.  I tried to coax him into it, but he wasn't interested.  Finally, he said, "Mommy, you go down the slide too."  Suddenly, being a Yes-Mom didn't seem as cool as I'd thought.  And, to make matters worse, there were signs all over the place stating that the play area was designed for children ages 3 to 12 and Parents too!  Great!  I can play too!  I can't even beg off by claiming it's not allowed!  Now, I have to go down the slide! ! ! ! !

And, we did.  I gingerly followed him up to the top of the plastic play gym and crawled behind him in and out and through all the twists and turns.  We stopped to drive the school bus and look out the window at the big plant and discuss how high we were.  Finally, when my knees couldn't stand crawling on the hard plastic for one more second, I suggested we go down the slide.

And, we did.  He was delighted Yes-Mom was visiting.  I was delighted to be out and my knees especially were grateful for relief.  Do little kids just not notice the pain?  Or more likely, almost 3 year-old knees don't hurt the way almost 35 year-old knees do.  But, really, what is pain compared with the joys of being a Yes-Mom?
 

8 comments:

PV Lundqvist said...

It is fun to take the parent hat off. Just enjoy playing.

Good for you.

bwebster said...

He will probably remember that forever.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

LOL. Forever young, Linsey!

Yuan

stephanie said...

way to go yes-mom! sounds like fun.

Alisha said...

My knees carry a lot more weight than they once did.

You forgot to mention that those scrumptious (okay maybe that is a stretch - good) parfaits are only a buck.

Last you should come out to Fairfax and try out our Chic-fil-A. It has a play place that you could never get into, even if you wanted to. I witnessed a mom, just last night, beg her son to come out. Plus, the food is WAY better.

Mibi and Lee said...

YOU ROCK and I am going to be a YES MOM tomorrow:P

Lauren in GA said...

Great job, Yes-Mom! I love it when I can be one, too.

I laughed at the, "Old McDonald's" name for Mickey Dees.

Hopefully your knees will not have any residual pain.

 

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