Last night is going to go down in the books as one of the most memorable family nights for me. I can’t remember when we sat down together as a family and laughed so hard! We moved here a year ago and I don’t think that we have had a time like this in the whole year we have been here. Man O Man what a blast. We were eating a late dinner and just hanging out and I don’t even know what sparked it but we were talking about the “times when…”
The thing about it was I was there for a lot of these stories. I had witnessed them personally but hearing the experience through my kids’ eyes and in their words made it all new. Like the time I started the car and my son (then about 2 or 3) started crying…I thought the car noise scared him, turns out he was sitting in the back playing with buttons and he pressed something and thought he started the car, his next thought was aw crap mom is gonna kill me so he started crying. Or when I sent the kids out to walk the dogs and my daughter saw prairie dogs out in the fields so like any big sister she gave the leashes to her brother and once the dogs caught sight of the prairie dogs they dragged him several yard across the grass while she pointed and laughed at him and he couldn’t even scream he was too busy being dragged like Indiana Jones! Or when so-n-so waited at the top of the stairs only to fart in the face of the other one…Or when the girl thought she would be cool and lean out of her window to wave to a friend and she fell out of it onto some bushes! HAHAHA My kids were FULL of stories and we didn’t end up going to bed till past 11:00. I absolutely LOVED hearing all about them! When we were winding down my daughter said “mom you didn’t say much” and I laughed it off cause she was right I didn’t. not that I don’t have stories of my own, I just realized that I hadn’t really heard theirs
You get to be older and start to think, what do these kids know, they haven’t experienced…whatever. But that is SO not true. They have experienced plenty in their lives they just never get a chance to talk about it or tell it. At 11 years and 14 years old my kids have stories to tell about their experiences. And they are GREAT. We all were laughing so hard we were literally crying! We as a family in ministry are always out doing… We do things together, but we are always out doing. I forget to remember to check in and see in all of our doing what are we experiencing? To just sit at home and talk was the most refreshing thing I have been given in a long time. I know it was Fathers Day, but, I can’t help but think that it was a gift to me. To get to hear my kids stories, to get to hear their lives, to get to experience what they did through their eyes. I like how they see things. I realized that my kids are growing up. But it felt good to hear that the growing has been fun for them.
All you moms of tweens and teens, I encourage you to just start a “remember the time…” conversation with your kids, and then listen. Listen to what was going through their mind at the time. Listen to the things they don’t mind telling you now but if you found out then they were sure it would mean instant death. Kids are HILARIOUS! That night really was a bonding/uniting experience for us Vidals. I hope it is the same for you.