Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Earlier this summer, the younger boys (age 6) went to spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa while the older boys (age 11) went to camp. Everyone enjoyed the experience, so since the older boys were going to another camp this week, the grandparents asked for the youngers again.

At first, The Manager told me he didn’t want to go to Grandma’s at all. We were just on our way home from spending a weekend there, so I thought it best to drop the conversation until he was more rested. Sure enough, when I brought it up a few days later both he and Captain Earthquake said they’d like to go, but only half of the week instead of the whole one.

I think they want to be home and play with the computer and swim in the pool and be kings of the castle without their big brothers around. That’s fine. I can get a bunch of work done while they’re gone and still have a couple of days to play with them before we go get the older boys.

Saturday we had a family reunion and the grandparents were taking the boys from there. When we said it was about time to go, the Captain told me he’d changed his mind and he wasn’t going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. This did not bode well – when my child makes up his mind about something it’s not easy to sway him. And I knew that Hubby really wanted me to have the couple of days to myself since I usually spend all day every day with kids around.

I asked the Captain what was going on, and he started crying and saying he didn’t want to leave me. We walked over to a private picnic table and I held him and talked while he sobbed. I was pretty sure that as soon as he actually went with Grandma that he’d be just fine. The boys spend time with grandparents regularly and they KNOW how much she’ll spoil them with treats that I don’t usually give them at home. More than once they’ve come home to inform me that “Grandma does it this way…” which makes me laugh.

Hubby joined the conversation and we both encouraged him to go with Grandma. We tried to tease and joke a little to cheer him up. It turns out that the Captain had gotten into a bit of a tiff with his older brothers and they’d corrected him rather firmly, which was why he was so upset. He’s gotten into trouble with them before but it hadn’t caused him to want to cling to me so much. Granted, he’s always been more timid when it comes to stepping away from the family. But this was rather extreme.

Eventually, I said it was time to go get in Grandma’s car. I asked, “Do you want me to carry you to the car, or do you want to walk and hold my hand?”. His answer was, “Carry me…….slowly.” Ripped. My. Heart. Out.

He was definitely cheering up, and when Hubby suggested that Grandma would buy them ice cream, he really brightened. So we went to the car, said our goodbyes, and they were on their way. He smiled as they waved.

The boys don’t know it, but when we drove out of town a few minutes later we passed them at the ice cream shop and saw them dancing across the parking lot with the folks. There were smiles all around.

I love love love that the Captain thinks so highly of me and that he loves being home so much. I don’t want that to change. I hope it gets easier for him though. That was rough!

by AmyL

Photo graciously provided by gustty, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved