Teachable Moments--Blast From the Past

As the day approaches, I've been thinking about Mother's Day and what it means to be a mother.  This morning I was outside watering in the top gardens.  Max was out there with me, and walked up to me and said, "My turn."   He wanted to use the hose.  I quickly finished up and handed him the hose.  It reminded me of a story I wrote in the Spring of 2008 and what a difference three years can make.  Here is your blast from the past.....3 year old Max and my teachable "mom"ment.  Happy Mother's Day!

Max, age 3, watering the Square Foot garden beds.  Notice the door ajar in the background.

Teachable Moments by Marti Lindsey

Teachable moments...you have got to love them!  My son Max and I have had many teachable moments in his three short years with me.  The first one I can recall is, “Don’t throw chicken at the policeman.”  This occurred shortly after he  turned one and we were eating at Pick Up Stix.  He simply wanted their attention.

Because it's never come up before, we've never had a dialogue about not bringing the hose into the house.  One day in May I was working in my terraced beds and Max was watering the square foot boxes.  These boxes are located near our back door,   He was doing such a great job...a little water in each square...I was so proud.  The thing with kids is that when they become quiet, some thing's up.  Alerted by the quiet, I looked over to where Max was only to see him watering...in my BEDROOM! 

I shouted., “NO, MAX, NO!  NO HOSE IN THE HOUSE!”  I don't raise my voice often, so Max was frozen with the hose...WATERING MY BED!

I had to weave through my squash and pumpkins, past my tomatoes to get to the stairs to get across the patio to get into the house to take the hose out of his hand and say again, “NO HOSE IN THE HOUSE! “   My neighbor, Cheryl Kelly, was in her backyard laughing at our predicament.  Her nephew, Erik, has Down syndrome and she is a special friend to Max and our family.

The carpet was soaked!  You know, that WHOCK WHOCK sound when you're squishing through the room.  The brunt of the watering seemed to be taken by the box springs.  I was toweling off the carpet only to find a Cole Hahn loafer...full of water.  All things considered, the damage wasn’t too bad...a laundry basket, the floor and part of the bed.  I got the fans out and the windows open.  As most wet things do, the bedroom dried out.

As only our children can remind us, teachable moments are around every corner.  Until the situation comes up, they don’t know about no hoses in the house!