A friend of mine told me the other day that one of his goals is to be as good of a dad as my mom is a mom. She knows a lot about all things nature-related, and is a good source of advice on a lot of stuff, though she doesn't push it on me unless I ask. My kids pretty much like her more than me. But I'm cool with that…
Dillon said the other day, "Grandma and Mary Ann's house is the most fun. They are the coolest."
Me: <desperately seeking approval from my five-year-old> "But, I'm the coolest too, right?'
Dillon: "Um… No."
Me: "Why are they the coolest?"
Dillon: "Because Grandma asks me what I want to do, and then we do it."
Me: <sad> Oh.
Dillon: "Okay, you can be the coolest too, mom."
So, I know that my mom has the luxury of having time that she totally blocks off with Dillon, where she doesn't have to do anything else because she doesn't have him the other hours in the day or week or whatever. And I'm not mad that she's cooler than me.
But I've been trying to take a page from her book, and go with the flow of play in the house. Obviously, there are times when an immediate situation needs to be addressed, but there are times when that stuff can wait, too. So today we had a lovely afternoon flying to the moon in the beanbag chair (two kids, one 'grownup', and two dogs in one over-capacity-beanbag-rocket-ship).