Doritos

The other morning something happened that got me to thinking about the evolution of mothering.
I was washing dishes, up to elbows in suds, when Levi dumped out the remnants of a bag of Doritos all over the floor.  As I scrubbed, he sat there happily in his pile of Doritos, munching. Not clinging to my legs, not hollering "up", not crying, and dear friend, I did nothing. Not only did I do nothing, but as I moved on from the dishes and on to the other demands of the day, I must confess, I left the pile of Doritos on the floor...most.all.day.

Yep, I did. My little son happily rediscovered his pile of booty many times, and as many times, it rescued me from the ankle swarming whine dance as he occupied himself amid the detritus.  Baylie Rose kept saying, "Mama, Levi's eating off the floor!!!" She knows this is most definitely not allowed, and I kept saying, "I know, sweetie, I'm getting to it." "No, you can't have any!"

Ugh. When did I become this mother?

Ok. Most of the time I'm not this mother, but something has changed in me, that is certain.  A 16 month old Morgan would surely have been confined to her playpen while I cleaned it up immediately, whilst administering a lecture on germs, wasted food, and the Dangers of junk food.  Those lectures have served mightily to enhance the vocabulary, but have alas, made no headway in any of the afore mentioned arenas.

It got me thinking about the frantic mother I was, and the way that the expansion of my brood has changed me....One child, berserk Nazi mom, two children, I honestly don't remember, but I like to think of this as the sane middle ground period, 3 children, call the health department!

I think I'll always be a helicopter mom at heart, but I'm learning, not to swoop in and rescue so much, not everything is an emergency.  I had a bit of a zen moment there, with my dirty floor and my son's gleeful Dorito powdered grin. There is a balance that could be achieved here, if I could step back from the small stuff, a new sanity amid the chaos....either that, or that a kid will quit whining if you give it a Dorito. No, no that can't be it, my inner gym girl would never allow me to be that zen.