Funny how I have gone from a house full of children to nearly an empty nest this week. Laura moved to McCall, Ben and Manda are gone on a Trek in Oregon, Sam had cub camp and tada... that leaves me with Emma! She will be turning 6 in the fall but as funny as it is this is only the second or maybe third time that I have had her all to myself. Being a homeschool mom, I always have more than one child around me! Perhaps there was a tender part of my heart that was actually a little excited to spend some one on one time with her but to be perfectly honest it was mostly panic involved while I was thinking... "Oh no, I have to entertain her all by myself this week!". My older kids all got a little chuckle at the thought of me learning to appreciate all the things that they do to be helpful taking care of our little princess. (There is a reason that the good Lord sent her last, it does take all of us to look after her!)
Well, as my luck has it, once again I was taught a valuable parenting lesson. Being the clever parent that I am, I invited a couple of little friends to come over and spend the day with Emma. Thinking- One day down that I won't have to be the source of entertainment, right? I was busy inside getting done all those things weighing on a mother with an empty house such as dishes, vacuuming, laundry- you know, all the important stuff. Well only a couple of hours into it, the girls were enjoying the amazing sunshine and cuddling with kittens, playing with the dog, picnic in the backyard, jumping on the trampoline, picking flowers, running through the yard, giggling... and .... eating "mushrooms". Yes, our child that we can't seem to get to eat vegetables from the store no less the garden came in the house spitting. I was quick to tell her to "stop that spitting" because I had just cleaned those floors, darn it. Why in the world would she carry on like that? She excitedly informed me that she didn't like the taste in her mouth from those "yucky mushrooms". It took a second or two for it to register in my over filled motherly head what she had just said. Then pure panic hit and I asked "What mushrooms Emma? Can you show Mommy?" She said "Sure, it is the yucky ones in the back yard and I don't like them".
Not only did I prove my chuckling older children right that I would have a hard time managing without them ( and it only took a couple of hours after their departure to prove that) , but now I had to make a call to Poison Control and explain that my 5 year old and her friend were snacking on "mushrooms" growing in my back yard. Poison Control is one of those mixed blessings in life... you are really grateful to have it but NOBODY wants to call them! I swallowed a big piece of humble pie and dialed the phone, only after making a few other phone calls first to see if anyone knew how much "mushroom" was too much for a child to eat. Thank goodness for kind people that work there, at least they come off as kind. It probably is really more like the service in a drive-thru, fast food chain where they smile and hand you your food graciously but you know that on their headsets they are really laughing and talking about the dumb blond going through. But, at least they have good sensitivity training and can fake it good while you are talking to them! I was reassured that it most likely was nothing to worry about since it was coming from the cultivated part of the yard and it was just the little white and brown variety. They asked me to go get a sample and store it in the fridge in a plastic container just in case she started showing any signs of sickness or unclear thinking. I silently laughed at that thought since the stomach flu ran through part of our family last week and clear thinking.... well nothing needs to be said there, right?
We are happy to report that Emma and friends are still alive, unaffected by their mushroom picking and snacking venture. But that does remind me that I still need to throw out the stored "mushrooms" before someone else snacks on them. My friend is amazing and forgave me for allowing her children to snack on poison (the real test will be next time I call and if she will REALLY let them come over, haha) My older kids will be happy to hear that their mother bombed the big "I can take care of my own child" test. And more importantly we learned the real thing that we need to fear... Emma caves to peer pressure. You can imagine the talks that we had about "You never, never, never eat mushrooms that you find growing" Her response was sobering, she said "I know that, but Kenna said I should and even though I didn't want to, I did it!" The actual problem here isn't that there are mushrooms growing in my back yard that a couple of darling little five year old girls are snacking on or the fact that I failed miserably at babysitting my own child, it is that my little princess caves to peer pressure. Don't think that for a minute that I blame the other sweet little girl, I don't. But believe me when I say that we are going to have talk after talk about not doing what others tell you! Lesson learned.... now how do I get her to eat the GOOD mushrooms?
Well, as my luck has it, once again I was taught a valuable parenting lesson. Being the clever parent that I am, I invited a couple of little friends to come over and spend the day with Emma. Thinking- One day down that I won't have to be the source of entertainment, right? I was busy inside getting done all those things weighing on a mother with an empty house such as dishes, vacuuming, laundry- you know, all the important stuff. Well only a couple of hours into it, the girls were enjoying the amazing sunshine and cuddling with kittens, playing with the dog, picnic in the backyard, jumping on the trampoline, picking flowers, running through the yard, giggling... and .... eating "mushrooms". Yes, our child that we can't seem to get to eat vegetables from the store no less the garden came in the house spitting. I was quick to tell her to "stop that spitting" because I had just cleaned those floors, darn it. Why in the world would she carry on like that? She excitedly informed me that she didn't like the taste in her mouth from those "yucky mushrooms". It took a second or two for it to register in my over filled motherly head what she had just said. Then pure panic hit and I asked "What mushrooms Emma? Can you show Mommy?" She said "Sure, it is the yucky ones in the back yard and I don't like them".
Not only did I prove my chuckling older children right that I would have a hard time managing without them ( and it only took a couple of hours after their departure to prove that) , but now I had to make a call to Poison Control and explain that my 5 year old and her friend were snacking on "mushrooms" growing in my back yard. Poison Control is one of those mixed blessings in life... you are really grateful to have it but NOBODY wants to call them! I swallowed a big piece of humble pie and dialed the phone, only after making a few other phone calls first to see if anyone knew how much "mushroom" was too much for a child to eat. Thank goodness for kind people that work there, at least they come off as kind. It probably is really more like the service in a drive-thru, fast food chain where they smile and hand you your food graciously but you know that on their headsets they are really laughing and talking about the dumb blond going through. But, at least they have good sensitivity training and can fake it good while you are talking to them! I was reassured that it most likely was nothing to worry about since it was coming from the cultivated part of the yard and it was just the little white and brown variety. They asked me to go get a sample and store it in the fridge in a plastic container just in case she started showing any signs of sickness or unclear thinking. I silently laughed at that thought since the stomach flu ran through part of our family last week and clear thinking.... well nothing needs to be said there, right?
We are happy to report that Emma and friends are still alive, unaffected by their mushroom picking and snacking venture. But that does remind me that I still need to throw out the stored "mushrooms" before someone else snacks on them. My friend is amazing and forgave me for allowing her children to snack on poison (the real test will be next time I call and if she will REALLY let them come over, haha) My older kids will be happy to hear that their mother bombed the big "I can take care of my own child" test. And more importantly we learned the real thing that we need to fear... Emma caves to peer pressure. You can imagine the talks that we had about "You never, never, never eat mushrooms that you find growing" Her response was sobering, she said "I know that, but Kenna said I should and even though I didn't want to, I did it!" The actual problem here isn't that there are mushrooms growing in my back yard that a couple of darling little five year old girls are snacking on or the fact that I failed miserably at babysitting my own child, it is that my little princess caves to peer pressure. Don't think that for a minute that I blame the other sweet little girl, I don't. But believe me when I say that we are going to have talk after talk about not doing what others tell you! Lesson learned.... now how do I get her to eat the GOOD mushrooms?
3 comments:
I am laughing only because I feel for you and KNOW exactly what you're talking about!!! Wow!!! I've had to call poison control too...for what, i can't remember...but it was right before church at my inlaws. hahaha that's great! (it was something of mine, not theirs) Anyway, I still have faith in you!! hahaha Maybe the mushrooms will be the worst of it?? :)
That is tooo funny, I feel your sympathy though because I had the same thing happen to us not too long ago, also the feeling of having kids gone, your mom (bless her) watched the kids for a couple of days and i had an eventful day look at my blog for more details. love wendy
HAHA. Very entertaining! It's good to see you in the blogging world :).
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