What I should have said.

As a mom of boys who are starting to come of age where pleasing me is not their goal in life - I have begun a list of 'What I should have said' moments.

For example, when a daring task is achieved successfully: don't smile and tell them you are so proud of them. This is not their goal anymore. Their main goal in this daring task is to scare mommy.

Over the last two weeks I have realized this with my five year old. He has started to ask me after I have watched a daring feat, "Did that give you a heart attack, Mommy?"

Slow to pick up on the real goal here, I responded, "No, sweetie. That was wonderful!"

His facial expression revealed that I had not given the correct response. A "Yes, dear! That gave me a heart attack" (with a shocked look on my face), was what he was hoping to get. By my initial response, I only encouraged him to make the task more daring and put himself and that sweet little body of his in dangers way moreso, to get the above mentioned response.

Yikes! Momma's gotta get with it here.

For me to stand in awe of the task he just completed (ie. ride his big boy bike down the hill at rapid speeds), is important and of value to him. For me to just jokingly applaud his feat, isn't quite enough anymore. My little boy is growing up!