Goodbye Week. Hello Weekend. Lessons Learned: Take 87.

 

Goodbye celebrating the first day of Spring driving home in a snow storm.
Goodbye indulging in a little window shopping but having the strength to walk away before opening up my wallet.
Goodbye pool playdate and meeting a new mom who is such a terrific person.
Goodbye spontaneous tromp to a late-night 3-D movie showing The Hobbit for only $3.25 a person (woo-hoo)!
Goodbye seeing our art museum's new digs; very impressive.

Hello more snow and trying to sleep with snowplows scraping the pavement at night.
Hello preparing for a new, unique opportunity that is exciting and scary all at the same time.
Hello delving deeper into the Happiness Element and sharing even more discoveries in later months.
Hello figuring out fun things to do in Week 2 of Spring Break.
Hello making time to organize the basement rec. room and get rid of some old toys intended for a younger kid (boo-hoo).

The Lesson Learned for this week involves the situation of meeting your kid's new friend's mom for the first time. They call you over for a "playdate" (kids over the age of 10 years DO NOT accept this label any longer, so whatever the older kids are calling it these days, you get the gist). SO, "hang out", "get together", whatever, the kids met and swam for what was supposed to be 3 hours. It ended up being 5 hours because when I met the mom, we just clicked and talked and talked. We have the same philosophy on education, we hold the same family values dear to our hearts, she's a mom of an only child as am I, we just had so many things in common. And, yet, she was born and raised and schooled all the way in India, I, the American.

It got me to thinking: why is it that the kids my son befriends also belong to moms that I really click with? Seriously, how strong is the value system we sow in our children? It's looking to me like it's extremely powerful because values resonate through people, and are passed on. So, unconsciously, does my son gravitate to those kids who also come from a household holding similar values? Will this continue to be the case as Kiddo enters Middle School next year. The "monster" time of adolescence when values could be tested, when integrity could be pushed aside for popularity, the time when, no matter how cool of a mom you are at this instant, you're coolness factor will fizzle out. My hope is my son continues to make wise decisions as to who he becomes friends with and cultivates the ones worth keeping. So, the lesson is, if your kid befriends a kid and you meet and get along well with the parents, it's a good thing: that's values coming through! You know what they say about birds of a feather flocking together.

Happy weekend, everyone!