This weekend my parents were out of town for youth conference, which means I've been "Mom" for the past few days. It's been quite the experience. Granted, the kids I was watching are my siblings and they're 9 and 13, so they can mostly take care of themselves but there was still plenty to do. It's been a rather eye-opening weekend.
What I've learned this weekend from playing Mom:
-I am definitely not ready to be a parent. But I kind of already knew that.
-I can still do a functional ballerina bun after 10 years of no practice. Small victories.
-Little girls can be surprisingly good shopping partners.
-Kids like to be listened to. They like their opinions to be validated and acknowledged, and just because they're younger doesn't make them any less important.
-Patience is a virtue that I am rather short on. If anyone's got any extra, I'm definitely in the market.
-It takes .5 minutes for a room to get messy again right after it's been cleaned.
-For some reason my siblings think that the table is a perfectly acceptable place for their socks.
-It takes at least five times of saying "Turn the TV off!" before it's actually acknowledged, and another five times (or more) before it's obeyed.
-Only offer bribes that you're prepared to follow through on. These kids will hold you to every single one.
-Apparently standing in a 20 minute Little Caesar's line for one stinking cheese pizza still doesn't count as cooking, even though it's just as much of a hassle.
-Bedtime is more like guidelines. However......
-Children who don't get enough sleep are very cranky children indeed.
-Allowing a 13 year old to make cookies by himself will result in a huge mess, but the cookies turned out wonderfully.
-Moms are incredible. I do not know how they do it.
Thanks to Nate and Grace for a great weekend! Hopefully I was a decent substitute Mom, because I know I could never replace the real thing.
Love, Brontë
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