Bragging On Your Kids

I looked in my rear view mirror today at a boy on the back row. Only 5. I remembered all the times I've been frustrated with him. So frustrated. Years ago even. What was he...4? 3? 2? He's still a child. He was an even small child. I forget. I forgot. They aren't grown adults, they are children. Learning. I looked at him in the mirror today and tried to remind myself to remember. Remember he's a child. A child who is going to be loud, break things, fight with his siblings...none without excuse or consequence, but now, hopefully with a little more foresight---on my part. It's going to happen. He's 5.

I talk a lot about the things he does. Some good. Mostly bad. Maybe some funny. You don't want to be "that" parent who brags. But do I really wanna be "that" parent who only shares the horrid incidents of the day? I think I need to remember, and talk about, more---the moments like above. When a boy. Just 5. Builds. Creates. Reads directions [like even his mother almost 6 times his age can't].

Don't worry, I'll still share our struggles. And by "ours" I mean a first born mom, and a first born son. But I hope I remember to write, photograph, and share more of the amazingness of him. To gossip to my girlfriends about the way he teaches his little crying brother to make a soccer goal when he was benched in his own defeat. The way he brings his newly pregnant mother drinks and snacks "for the baby". The way he talks about The Lord...at only 5.

Sometimes I think we talk bad about our kids to avoid being "that" parent who brags too much, but maybe at the cost of being "that" parent who is like "that" wife, who only talks negative about her husband. We laugh at her stories. But we also soon recognize the fall of their marriage. A wife who builds her husband up [even if he's fallen] is a good thing, we know. But what of a mom who builds up in speech her [also fallen] son? A wise habit we should all get in the habit of.

Nation--- you amaze me.