Loosening the Leash on Liam and Skyler

Snow days snow days and more snow days.  It’s been ridiculous this year.  Awesome on the one hand and a scheduling nightmare for working moms and dads on the other.  Now when you wake up to three inches, it is understandable that they cancel school.  But when you wake up the next day and the rain has washed 90% of it away and they still cancel school…..not cool.  With no snow to play in, the kids quickly got restless.  I had work I needed to get done and am also a true believer in giving your kids a long rope so that they feel trusted.  So, I told them they could walk to Walgreens together IF they stayed on all available sidewalks, watched out for each other and were SUPER SUPER aware of any cars on the hill.  They jumped on the opportunity and headed out the door faster than I could think “oh my God, what have I done?”  I quickly grabbed my coat, stayed a healthy distance behind them, and played spy mom the whole way down the hill.

They were so darn cute!  They talked the whole way, jumped to the side of the road when cars drove by, took an extra-long route so that that could stay on the sidewalks, and headed in to Walgreens like two little adults.  They bought their gum and candy and walked out….to the left…..not the right.  Hmmm.  What are they up to I thought to myself while peeking out from behind the trash can I was hiding behind.

Starbucks is what they were up to.  I literally laughed out loud as they headed in to the Starbucks.  Of course.  They walked out a few minutes later and Skyler had a vanilla steamer in her hand.  Liam had saved some of his money at Walgreens to buy his sister a steamer.  My heart nearly exploded.  They made it home safely and never once saw that I was following them.  They beamed with pride for having done it all by themselves.