Adventures in Bennionland

So we got a new Home Entertainment System. The old one was one I bought with my brother almost 12 years ago… and was really showing its age. As part of the process of setting this up, I took the old one to Goodwill.

William has a rough time with getting rid of anything he grows attached to his/our stuff… Even Capri Sun packets… I took the boys with me to drop it off because we were going to get a treat on the way home.

To distract the boys from what I was doing I had them look for shapes in the clouds out the front window, while I dropped off the stereo out the back of the car.

When I got back in and we started to drive Will and I had this conversation:

Will: “Do you know what I see in the clouds?”

Me: “What?”

Will: “Jesus.”

Me: “huh?”

Will: “yeah Jesus, Jesus Christ.”

Me: “oh”

Will: “Yeah he has a beard.”

Me: “What color is his beard?”

Will: “Daaaad, He’s a cloud…!”

yup…

Sometimes language is funny.

This morning at breakfast we started talking about The Little Mermaid. Auntie Ali sent the boys a disc (THANK YOU!) with Disney songs on it. It’s been quite the hit.

After Under The Sea played (a personal favorite of mine) I was telling my boys about Sebastian and why he was singing that song. We haven’t watched that movie yet….

The boys are starting to put characters together since we have Disney Bingo so we were discussing how Ariel is a mermaid and her dad is the King of all the MerPeople (?).

Will: “King Triton is a mermaid too?”

Me: “No, he’s a merman. Mermaids are girls and mermen are boys.”

Walker: “Mermen? King Triton is a merman?”

Me: “Yep.”

Walker: “Papa and KK are mermans too!”

Mormon. He meant Mormon.

Ha ha ha!

As many of you know I hate camouflage. I think it’s ugly. Well, more like fugly.

So when Walker started expressing a great interest in all things military I had to reevaluate my feelings.

Parents have the tough role of being battle pickers. Which fights do we engage in? What’s the bigger picture? How do we in fact win the “war” of parenthood to raise healthy, happy individuals?

Well, this is how:

By letting our kids win some of the smaller battles. By putting parental distaste and embarrassment aside and letting our kids walk out into public in clothes we might not fully appreciate.

I bought that shirt (thank you 99-cent store!). I put it in their dresser rather than their dress-up box. And I’ve happily been drafted into the battle of camouflage and I’m letting Walker win this one. In the end, letting him make the decision and have some control means I am winning the parenting war. And that’s a good thing…

PS – on days that I really hate letting my kids dress themselves, I do comfort myself by chanting “it’s only a phase, it’s only a phase, it’s only a phase”….