Do You Really Know Your Kids? Because I’m Clueless.

October 11th, 2011

Just when you try to pigeonhole your kids, they change.  This is Bridget (7):

If tortured on a bed of red-hot nails I might encapsulate her as: as an outgoing, chatty, Girly Girl who’s hard to get to know because she keeps real intimacy at bay with her Fancy Nancy persona.  It’s all small talk and silliness.

Bridget and I do Mommy/Daughter dates at a cheap nail salon on Pico, each of us in our own little spa chair.  She chats up her spa lady while I catch up on which nanny might be stealing Brad from Angie.  So when I decided to plant an herb garden in the backyard I expected my “tomboy” Clare to be gung-ho for the job, but it was Bridget who eventually came outside and watched me whacking and hacking at the ground covered in mud and worms.

At first she didn’t want to get dirty or wormy.  But finally she offered to help.  We sat in the muck for two hours breaking up dirt clods, manhandling spiders, rolling up pill bugs and planting basil, sage, tomatoes and some other stuff I’m not sure what it is but it’s purple.  And these are the things I learned about my daughter that I didn’t know:

– She has a friend who yells at her, but it doesn’t scare her.  She’s determined her friend just has trouble “processing her emotions.”  So she doesn’t take the outbursts personally, she just waits them out.

–  She thinks everybody’s stressed out about something whether you’re a kid or an adult.  Which is why you should enjoy being in “the stage of life” you’re in now.  Because there will always be something to worry about and there will always be something that’s fun.

–  She much prefers digging in the dirt with me than going to the nail salon because “this way we can really talk.”  She informed me planting the garden was her favorite Mommy/Daughter Date.

As my friend Tango 5/6 might say, “Don’t concretize your kids.”  (BTW “Concretize” is not a word Tango – I LOOKED IT UP!)

Now Bridget’s pigeonholed as Burbling Waters That Run Deep.  Until she changes again.  Here’s our garden:

And here’s my girl (Man, I’m in trouble) …

For more KID WRANGLING you might enjoy:   Go The F#%k Back To School!

Or:   I’m Might Be A Murderer

And if your Lady Jane is overgrown you might enjoy:  Pruning The Lady Garden