From SortaCrunchy school of the home contributor Dina, originally published at A Worthy Life
It's a dead on impersonation of Beyonce's "Single Ladies." She flips her hair and wiggles her ring finger while her face is all sass and serious attitude. "If you liked it than you shoulda put a ring on it . . . . UhuhohohohohUhuhohohohohUhuhOH . . . !!" She probably heard the song all of three times and yet the words sank deep into her cerebellum waiting to be conjured up again and again at the soonest silliest moment.
The other one stumbled across a day time soap opera while searching for Treehouse, unattended and unauthorized to have the tv on. I came running when I heard the tell tale music that saunters into your ears to lure in your eyes, that soft melody that suggests an intimate and torrid scene. Her eyes were hooked and though they lingered only long enough for me to tear the remote from her frozen fingers, the images sank deep into her heart and affected her mind and body for months after.
Their days are full of sensory overload, whether during school or in play or by the examples of those they come into contact with. They are learning by osmosis, picking up on the culture and social norms by the influences that are allowed access to the gates of their minds and hearts.
And I, the familykeeper, stand guard, allowing or rejecting the influences that take up residence in our home.
While online, watching tv, or playing with their friends, I stand close by, watching and listening, instructing and protecting. Thinking it is only there, in the outside world, that the greatest evil influences reside.
Then, I observe her declaring with gruff disapproval, "Dang DON it!" An (almost) spot on imitation of someone else's blatant frustration. I overhear another bossing the younger unmercifully with the same tone I myself am apt to use. When I tell them not to yell at each other, their ready defense is, "But sometimes you yell at papa..." I see rooms littered with clothes and toys, remnants of fun but forgotten times abandoned for the next thing. Funny how my room looks the same.
As many parents do, I worry about the influence of the media and peers on my children. Yet statistics show that of all the influences in a child's life, none is greater than their parents. Dang DON it, don't I wish I could blame it all on the media?!
The show my kids are tuned into most is the Mommy Channel and they are watching, they are learning. Are all my lessons to them given from behind lipstick on a pig, an obvious hypocrisy and double standard? Does all I say merely drip with honey while my life displays a sticky mess?
Gilda Radner, America's comic sweetheart, tells a story of a pregnant dog who was run over by a lawnmower. She lost her two hind legs but her babies survived. The mama soon adjusted to life with only front paws and found a new way of walking by taking two steps followed by a hop from her backside. When her pups were old enough to walk, they did just fine, following their mother's example of a two-stepping-bum-hopping gait.
I am teaching my children to walk by my own walk.
Are they learning a confident gait along the straight path, one walked with perseverance and no compromise? Or, are they mimicking a walk that is random and sporadic, steady on good days and then occasionally scooting off to my own desires, hopping on and off the path when it suits my whims?
Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, be careful little hands what you do, be careful little feet where you go, be careful little mouth what you say. For littler eyes and ears and hands and feet and mouths will watch and overhear and mimic and accompany and repeat their precious mamas.
Be careful, little mama.
a student of life, learning daily through the unconditional love of her God, her husband, and her four children. a lamb to her Good Shepherd and a shepherdess to her young ewes, all the while hoping that somehow, someway her life brings about change in the lives of others that will last for all eternity. Read more from Dina at A Worthy Life.
sock monkey ink photo by katesheets
