Balmy day of winter?

While not exactly balmy, it was pleasantly warm today once the morning hours had passed. Before it was nearly freezing and now, late at night,  it’s nearly freezing. Lego Lover and I went off to a park about half an hour away to meet with other homeschoolers this afternoon. There were only three of us mums there, along with three boys aged five, six  and  10. Lego Lover wasn’t very sociable so he stayed to himself most of the time.  The other two are good mates and played together much of the time although there were a few conflicts along the way. We were only there for about an hour but that was enough for Lego Lover, who moved to the car when the younger boys got a bit close for comfort.

We adults had a reasonably decent opportunity to socialise while the kids were otherwise occupied and the topic of conversation mostly centered on parenting issues on this occasion. I felt like something of  veteran compared to the other two because I’ve been through many of the battles they are dealing with these days. It’s not so much that those battles are behind me but the fact that my approach and attitude to how I parent has evolved somewhat over the years, due to experience. One of the themes that came up was trying to nip problems in the bud. That’s a really great ideal to have. But it’s also unrealistic to think we can stop less desirable behavior right at the start all the time too. As I put it, sometimes we just have to go with the flow, and ride the roller coaster that is parenting.  We just can’t fix all the issues that come up through our years of parenting. I think this must be a bit of wisdom I’ve gathered from my nearly fifteen years of parenting because I don’t think it would have been so obvious to me even a few years ago. I now feel old and wise! :)

Our gathering only lasted a little over an hour and then Lego Lover and I were on our way home. We had a mostly enjoyable ride, aside from the overly generous solar heat that required windows to be put down at times. We’ve been listening to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (BBC radio production from many years ago) and managed to hear two or three episodes during the round trip, which were all really funny. We arrived home before traffic became completely unbearable and all was good.