...This is going to make me sound old. But I remember vividly climbing trees when I was a girl. I loved it. I never gave a second thought to how high I was off the ground. I never complained if the tree scratched me or if it was hard to climb. I just did it.
This tree, found in my sister Jana's front yard, is the first tree that my boys have climbed. They were a little apprehensive. But I was so proud of them because they did it. Without complaint. And they thought it was so cool.
How I wish we had a climbing tree in our yard. How I wish I still had that little girl's fearlessness, mentality and carefree nature. Where did she go I wonder? Nowadays, I catch myself being afraid of everything that could potentionally hurt my kids. Germs, high places, mosquitos, sunburns, strangers...
Does becoming a parent automatically mean you have to lose that part of yourself that wanted to do things just for the heck of it? Does it mean you have to lose your guts?
I hope that little girl is around here, in me, somewhere. I believe it was her, not me, that suggested the boys climb the tree in the first place. The mom in me protested loudly in my mind, but the words, "Hey, why don't you try to climb this tree?" still came out of my mouth.
And I am so glad they did.
1 comment:
I loved climbing trees too. There was one in that field back behind our house that was my "secret hideout." Dad would catch me back there sometimes and yell at me because there were all kinds of nails and glass and wires back there that I could step on but I didn't care, I kept going back. I also loved climbing on the tractors and combines -- real safe, I know. Sometimes it makes me sad that my kids will never have those kinds of experiences. We don't have good climbing trees either, much less farm equipment. And I don't know when I'll ever be comfortable telling them to "go out and play" without supervision. I try not to be a parent who's always saying "Be careful, you'll get hurt!" -- I try to let them explore and climb and run around without hovering. It's just hard. But this was a good reminder to keep that inner child alive!
Sorry, that was way long.
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