Today I was that mom…

Today I was that mom…

If you would have driven by my house around 5:30 today you would have thought I was crazy.  Or drunk. Or both.

There I was, wearing a collared, button down tank top and zebra pajama pants.  My hair was wild and my cheeks were rosy from laughing so hard.  My car was full of soap suds and there was a dismantled high chair lying down 10 feet from where I was standing.  I had the hose in my hand.  Music was blasting.  Mini was running wild around the driveway.  Well on her way to becoming soaking wet.  In her school clothes.  Her hair plastered across her face from the last spray of the hose.  If you would have looked carefully you would have seen Joey.  Still in his dinosaur onesie.  Scrubbing his own tonka truck with a wash cloth.  The tips of his hair wet from when he too was in the path of the hose.

We would have looked crazy.

What would you have thought if you rolled the window down?  Heard the music playing.  Listened to Mini scream “get me one more time Mama, I dare you”.  Waited for their favorite song to come on and saw us break out some fantastic dance moves while the water trickled down the driveway.  Watched Joey giggle uncontrollably when the hose sprinkled water all around him.  Would you have still thought I was nuts?

Sure I could have made the kids put swim suits on.  I could have not been wearing zebra sweatpants rolled up to my mid thigh.  I could have actually used car wash soap instead of caress body wash to get the dead bugs off the car.  But that wasn’t how the story unfolded.

We were just having a day.  You know the ones.   When the kids are getting into everything.  Snack crumbs cover the floor.  You swear that you are going to change your name to anything but Mama.  And you say no.  A lot.  We had just finished eating dinner and I look over and saw Joey’s high chair covered in mashed potatoes.   Oh the joys of self feeding.  So in my efforts to tire my kids out before bath time I announced we were going to go outside to hose the high chair down.  As quickly as I decided to do it, we were outside.

Within a minute I heard myself tell Mini NO yet again.  “Don’t get wet.  You’re not wearing a bathing suit.”

And suddenly I thought.. “Who cares.  So what.  So her clothes get wet.  What is the big deal?!”  And I sprayed her with the hose.  She shrieked with laughter.  Half out of shock and the other half thrill.   And so that’s how it happened.  With me deciding to not say no.  As for the kids…they had an absolute blast.  It was 30 minutes well spent enjoying the last of the days’ sunshine.  We watered the flowers, scrubbed the high chair and got all the dead bugs off the front of the car.  And we laughed.  Really, really hard.

I have no control over the memories my children will choose to remember.  I don’t know if they will forget all about today.  Or if they will remember every second of the fun we had in that moment.   What I can control is how often moments like these happen.

I want my kids to have fun and be silly and know that we can have a good time. That we can laugh and act crazy.  And that Mama doesn’t always say no.

So the next time I see a mom sharing a donut in the parking lot with her 5 year old I’m going to smile.  When I see that mom dancing with her baby in the grocery store I’ll be inspired.  And from now on every time I see a mom look a little crazy I’ll just think, maybe they are in their moment.  And I’ll think to myself how lucky her kids are to have today for a memory.

So, I guess I was that mom today.  And I really hope I’m her again tomorrow.