day 110: grown-up realization

Remember how when you were a kid and your parents would say, "No! Don't do that! It's dangerous!"?

But, most of us would proceed with that dangerous act anyways, most often with the same results that our parents predicted.

Why?

Because sometimes we just need to figure things out on our own rather than being told what will happen or what the truth of things really are.

Tonight the girls and I went to a cookout at the home of some of our friends. The rest of the people there were from their small group at church.....which meant that other than our friends, we didn't know anyone else very well. Which meant that we did a lot of people watching and conversation listening-in-on, and the girls did a good job of playing with kids they didn't know.

A few hours into it, Reagan sat down beside me.

"Mom, I've been watching people, and I figured something out."

"What's that?" I responded.

"Well, I might be wrong, but I've noticed that it's a lot harder job when there's just one parent instead of two."

I smiled and told her she had hit the nail on the head. She was 101% right. I wish I could've delved into her mind to know exactly what actions or words she had observed to come to this grown-up conclusion. That child so often seems older than her 6 years of age. I don't know how many times she's heard me say things like, "Listen, girls, you have got to cooperate with me/stop fighting/not complain/etc. because there's only one of me, and this is not easy for me to do by myself." Obviously, hearing me saying such comments hasn't had as much weight as actually seeing it in action.