I'm Not Calm

The longer I am a mother, and for me that will be five years at the beginning of August, the more I discover that I really, really am not a calm person. If you had asked me before i had kids if I thought I was calm, I probably would have said 'about most things.' But since the birth of my Dear Son #1, I find that there is very little that doesn't make me want to go AHHHHH.

Just recently, my almost five year old son came home from a walk outside with his 2 year old brother and his 9 month old brother. As the older two were upstairs being put down for naps, DS goes into the living room, removes the safety cover from the plug, and sticks the metal end of the dog leash into the hole. The leash was burned, he was scared, and it was everything in my power not to literally go AHHHHHH.

Instead, I dug deep and discussed with him, as calmly as i was able, about the reason why that was a very, very, very bad idea. I think I might have scared him a little bit with my description about what could happen to him if he were to be hurt by electricity. It is possible, I suppose, that he will never, ever plug anything in again--even as an adult.

This quality of mine--the one that makes me want to go AHHHH all the time--presents itself in my writing. Sometimes I just want my characters to go AHHHHH. And then I have to remind myself that they need to use dialogue, and descriptive language. Just because AHHHH is a perfectly acceptable response in my little brain does not mean the rest of the world will follow what I'm thinking.

I think its a good thing that my job requires me to sit behind a computer and not fly an airplane or run a submarine.

Oh by the way, when I told my Husband what his son had done...his response "Oh I did stuff like that all the time when I was a kid."

Great. I think there are going to be lots of AHHHH moments for me in the future.

Maybe that's why I spend so much time in Fantasy Land.

Best to you!

RR