Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Friday Mom – Jaime:
As an attorney, a lot of times I have to make snap decisions. I have a judge screaming at me over the position I’m taking – do I stand my ground or concede the point? We get a settlement offer as we’re standing on the courthouse steps walking in to try the case – do I recommend it to the client and buy certainty in the outcome or should I tell them it’s better to roll the dice? Do I call an extra witness at trial, even though the judge should have everything he needs to rule in our favor?

In my job, I’m confident in making most of these decisions on the fly. I can draw from almost 10 years of experience as a litigator, as well as a solid understanding of the applicable rule and laws.

It’s not always so easy as a parent.

We got excellent news today on our house. It actually looks like a house again. By that I mean the tarps that have been holding the place together since October are gone. We have 4 walls again. We have a roof. New windows that aren’t broken or have cracked seals. (The inside is still a work in progress, but outside, it looks like a house again).

Andrew overheard my discussing this on the phone with Hubby. Immediately, he started begging to go by the house to see. We’ve been very careful not to go anywhere near the house with him since the hurricane. We didn’t want to upset him further letting him see the damage that’s kept us out of our home going on our third month now.

But he was insistent. I pulled the car over and asked him why he wanted to see. “It’s my HOUSE, Mommy! I want to see how the house doctors are doing with it. The band-aids are gone now.” I cringed – already knowing his answer – before asking whether it would make him feel better to see the house. (Of course, the answer was a big, fat “YEAH”) I asked if it would freak him out because the house wouldn’t look exactly the same. (He got his serious face on and told me, “I will not freak out. I PROMISE you, Mommy.”)

You can already tell where this is going… I took him by the house. We didn’t go inside and didn’t get out of the car, but we drove by. He got to see that we have a new roof, that all the walls are in tact. He asked a couple questions, like why the side of the house is 3 different colors. (They haven’t put up shingles yet.) He actually noticed that the roof is a slightly different color than it was before and asked why it’s a different color. (I can’t BELIEVE he could tell the difference, but was satisfied with the answer that it was new.)

I don’t think Hubby was thrilled with me bringing Andrew by. I still don’t know if I did the right thing. It helped ME today to see the house all in one piece again. The sense of relief was indescribable. But I’m 34 years old… I don’t know if Andrew will have the same reaction. Andrew is upstairs in his bed and I’m trying not to worry about whether his dreams will be full of visions of when the trees came through our house…

Sometimes we have to make spur of the moment decisions and we chose the wrong thing. I hope my judgment wasn’t off on this one, but I guess only time will tell.

If nothing else, we have a big weekend full of all kinds of fun things to distract Andrew with… I can wait for our special Mommy and Andrew time on Sunday, but that’s a story for another post.

Have a great weekend everyone.