The kidlet and I had a date night last night after he mentioned again that I am a "no fun mommy!". He's been acting out at school a little bit, and his comment caused me to pause and realize that he's right, I spend way too much of my time with him either driving in the car, or on the computer, or simply doing chores, and that he gets darned little of my focused attention. So, I declared that we shall have kidlet and mommy date night every week, just he and I, with me fully present. We played tourist in our home town and went up the Space Needle. He was so excited, he's been wanting to go forever. We could pick out our house, which I thought was pretty cool, and the warm and clear--albeit smoggy--evening was perfect for viewing all the mountain ranges that surround us.
The best part though, was the walking around that we did, he holding my hand (which he doesn't like to do so much anymore), and talking to me non-stop about all sorts of different things that crossed his mind: the safety movie that they saw at school, whether or not birds have ears, the best route to the Needle, why big strips of bark were falling off of the trees along Mercer Street. When we got home, he gave his usual reply of satisfaction at something, "I had very fun."
What a lucky boy!
Posted by: M | 2004.07.24 at 18:03
Sounds lovely, for both Mom and kidlet!
Posted by: Karen | 2004.07.24 at 19:28
That is so cool.
Posted by: Mikey | 2004.07.26 at 15:38
Aww, that's so cool. I have to try that. I hear giving each kid even 10 minutes of a date a day will make their day on many levels. It's really hard sometimes to be fun mommy when the checklist looms, isn't it?
Posted by: Kim | 2004.07.26 at 19:28
In essence, it's more about me realizing that I want and need to be more fully present with him in our daily lives as much as any need to do "fun" stuff. He thinks it's fun to help me do the dishes, bless his little heart.
Posted by: nina | 2004.07.26 at 20:03