me vs. mine

Smootch was telling me that when boys grow up they become men.  And when girls grow up they become people.

When I was a child, it was assumed that children and adults are intrinsically different and natural enemies.  All children knew that adults were befuddled idiots at best and, more likely, viciously tyrannical.  All adults knew that the children couldn't be trusted; give the kid an inch and they'll knock you down and swipe your Visa card on the way out.

Don't believe me?  I grew up in the '80s.  Try a small sampling of conventional wisdom through popular films.  In The Breakfast Club, the weird chickie says, "When you get grow up, your heart dies."  The principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, who is actually hunting Ferris in the movie, says, "I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind."

Don't talk to me about Children of the Corn.

With this in mind, you can believe me when I say that my biggest parenting challenge is trust.


Trusting her.


And trusting me.


I work very hard at both.

So, when I ask Smootch if she'll pose for me so I can get a few good pictures to demonstrate the new bloomer pattern - a routine we are both getting overly familiar with - and she says, 'Hey, let's take photos of the new bloomers while I'm swinging,' I think, ookkayy, maybe she's onto something. 


I trust she believes this will produce some good pictures for the pattern cover.

 Or, maybe, the kid doesn't give a rat's tuckus about my photos and knows what buttons of mine to push in order to skip the work and get straight to the fun stuff.
 

Just a thought.