Eating your hot dog from the middle

Let me start off by saying that with not having a voice I guess I NEED to talk to much so if I can't talk with my mouth, I'll do it with my fingers to satisfy the need to communicate! And a side note... I realized I've been using the boring "DH" reference instead of what I should really be using which is FG - yes, it stands for F*#@ing Genius.



Last night while sitting down to an oh-so nutritious dinner of hot dogs and fries (home made onion rings for FG and I) I heard FG say to our daughter, "Eat it from the end." As I sat there and looked at her adorable little ketchup covered face dive into her hot dog from the middle I realized I need to relax sometimes. Things do not need to be perfect. So we had a terrible dinner with no fruits or vegetables. It was fun. We were all together and laughing and happy.



I look at parenting as the fact I am raising them to be adults, not overgrown children. No, I'm not making them do their laundry now but I do have them have household responsibilities and I do look at almost everything as a lesson that they need to learn. I tend to freak at statement that DS will make like "I'm going to cut him up into pieces!", which in reality is totally normal 1st grade boy stuff because he really does get overly concerned when anyone does get hurt. He's not a violent kid at all, never has been but I think all kids and especially boys get into a fixation about stuff like that at some point. Yet I have troubles looking past the "6 year old boy" thing and think of it in terms of an adult saying it. When they are giggling over some idiotic potty joke I cringe and tell them how positively unacceptable that is.



So I think I need to work on finding a balance between letting them be the little kids they are and doing/saying completely age-appropriate things (because really, when you are 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... farting IS funny) and still teaching them the lessons on being polite and kind. Every time they pull the cat's tail it does NOT mean they will grow up to be animal torturing teens but I do still remind them that we need to be kind and gentle to our animals because that's how we treat those that we love.



So I will try my best from now on to remember that it's ok to eat the hot dog from the middle when you are 3 and sitting at your own kitchen table. Who cares? The point is, you are eating it.