I love this kid

I'm in Vegas at a conference for school.  You know how I love me a little conference time!  The quiet.  The bed to myself.  The no dishes to clean up after. The thoughts that can be completed without some saying 'MOMMY'.  But every time I go away to a conference I learn something great about my kids.  I'm supposed to be learning about my classroom, my teaching, and somehow I always walk away with something about Will & Addi.  

Yesterday we listened to a pretty good keynote speaker you reminded me that time moves so fast and that sometimes we get hung up on the little things that we think are really important at the time, but really aren't in the grand scheme of things.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  See...Will is like our guinea pig kid.  The first.  We get to try out all sorts of things with him, see which ones work, which ones don't, and then do the right thing with Addi. I'm hard on Will.  Much harder on him than I am on Addison.  And I'm not sure why. Maybe it'e because he so smart and I want just the best for him.  Or maybe it's because he's a lot like me.  Or maybe it's because he's the first....the guinea pig...the tester rat.  I don't know.  But I'm hard on him none the less.  The speaker yesterday told a story about how he walked into his son's room the night that he left for college and looked around at the blank room.  There was a picture left on his son's desk from his first grade year of T-ball.  The dad picked up the picture and thought back to all of the great things that his son did growing up that he never said great job for.  Then he thought about all the things he did talk with his son about....the 'getting good grades' talk.  The 'you should have made better decisions' talk...the 'who better control yourself better' talk.  The 'you need to make better choices' talk.  The 'what are you going to do with your future' talk.  At the end of it, with the son long gone down the road to college, he realized that he should have spent more time celebrating and less time nagging..harping on the things that get in the way.  He shouldn't have been so hard on him.  

Hmmm....So then I get all teary eyed and I start to panic that I've forever scarred my son.  I then I think to myself...self..isn't it your job to teach life lessons, develop good character and give this world a boy that can act his age.....And then I remember...self....Love and compassion...and caring...can go a long way. 

And then, because I can't run home a devise a plan with Rob on how to better tackle this (ps...he needs no plan...he's great at this) I decide to instant message chat with him.  Rob tears up...I tear up...At the end of the day....Kids grow up fast.  There's a lot of things they need to do.  There's a lot of pressure on these little bodies do this and to do that.  To learn this and get that.  It's a lot.  And while my job is to develop good, responsible little citizens that will contribute to the world...It's also my responsibility to to teach kindness, compassion, the act of slowly down and just taking it all in.  I also have to remember that kids are kids and nobody is perfect.