MOPS

I'll never forget an afternoon several years ago, that I went to retrieve our oldest daughter Cassidy, (age 2 at the time) from my mom's house. Mom had offered to take her oldest granddaughter for the afternoon and I, being of sound mind and body, took her up on her offer without a second thought.

When I arrived to pick her up later on, I heard squeals of joy coming from the kitchen. I eagerly wandered in-excited to see what fantastic things were happening that I'd missed out on. Fully expecting cookie baking or a date with chocolate pudding, I wasn't prepared for what greeted me instead.

My young daughter was perched on a chair alongside her Nanna, playing with a sink full of water. And bubbles. And plastic measuring cups. And spoons.

To say that Cassidy was LOVING this would have been a major understatement. She was having a ball and my mom was beaming. Until she saw me.

"You're here early," she said. "We're not finished playing." And with that, she turned her back on me and went back to her young charge, gleefully filling and dumping water out of the cups and laughing the whole time.

Obviously, I was not welcome here.

I peered over their shoulders. "Wow! She's loving this, Mom. I NEVER let her do this at home."

My mom sniffed. "Yes. She told me that, too."

Ratted out. And by a two-year old nonetheless. Dern it.

I'm guilty of not taking enough time out to play. In fact, there are a lot of days that I just plain fail miserably at this part of motherhood. I need to do it more. A lot more!

A couple of weeks ago, in the midst of the chaos of preparing for the holidays and truly feeling overwhelmed with no end in sight, our 4 year-old Mackenzie wandered in the kitchen, where I was doing dishes.

"Can I help you, Mommy?" she asked.

"No, I've got to get this done. I don't have time. I've got so much to do, and I've just got to get this done already" then I stopped and saw her face. "Pleeeeaaaase?" she pleaded.

And suddenly I remembered an afternoon when her older sister had stood at a sink full of bubbles and was playing, laughing and having the best time ever. I swallowed the lump in my throat and told her to pull up a chair. She happily complied and even long after I had finished actually washing the dishes, I'd gotten a lot of stuff on my to-do list checked off as my youngest happily played in the sink. Did I have a lot of water to clean up around the area afterward? Absolutely. Did she have fun? Without a doubt. Did her playing really interfere with my to-do list? Not at all.

So, from me to you, let's see if saying "yes" from time to time-indulging our kids in the small simple things that we anticipate might inconvenience us, actually turns out to be a double blessing. It worked for me. It might work for you.

And maybe, just maybe, we all might have fun along the way as well!