Oh the lessons we teach our children

Life has been pretty normal lately, well whatever normal is anyway. So I am going to write about a story that happened when we were living in Boston. I've been a bit nostalgic while reminiscing about Boston and it reminded me of a story about Brayden when he was in pre-school.



In Boston things are done a bit different. Kids don't just run over to each others homes like they do in Utah. You schedule play-dates which consist of moms checking their calendars and making time to visit at each other's home while the kids play together. I actually really miss that because I truly enjoyed the friendships that developed while I spent time with the moms of my children's friends. Well back to my story. Brayden had a little boy named Nicholas in his preschool. He was such a sweet and polite little boy and always wanted to play with Brayden. His mom was not like other mom's. She was very busy and didn't want any of this mom-come-over and visit-play-date stuff. She had asked several times if Brayden could come over and play, without mom. It made me a bit nervous to tell you the truth. Brayden was my oldest and I worried about him. After several invitations I came to the conclusion that I would have to stop being the hovering helicopter mom and let him go to his friends home so I agreed to the play-date minus the mom. As I got Brayden ready that morning I decided to go over all my mothering lessons that I felt so strong about, including the one about everything in your swimsuit area was considered your private parts and no one should ever look at your private parts. Keep in mind, I was feeding into that first child syndrome!! So I took Brayden over to Nicholas' home and walked in to make sure Uncle Chester wasn't hanging out in the closet. It was only Nicholas and his mom at home so I said my goodbyes and promptly returned to pick him up just over an hour later. As I stood in the doorway and thanked the mom for having Brayden over to play I looked at Brayden and asked him if he had a fun time at Nicholas' home? He replied, "Mom, I had a great time.... and no one even asked to see my private parts!" I couldn't bare to make eye contact with Nicholas' mom as she stood speechless. I simply turned around and walked to my car. Brayden was never asked to play with Nicholas again and I always wonder what kind of Mormon impact we had on Nicholas and his family.