Mommy, I drew a picture of you and me enjoying the golden sun, do you like it?

We keep a stock of cute little cards that are blank inside that we use as "emergency cards" - in case we go to a birthday party and forget to buy a birthday card - or if we want to say hello to a friend.. etc

Yesterday morning, my almost 5 year son was adamant about drawing a card.  He was adamant about getting me to give him a card to write on.

See - he is very proud of his penmanship - now that he is starting to draw and write a little better!

Unfortunately - we were running real late!  I had a choice to make - let him get this card and the trade off was that I would have to get him ready "speedy style" as we call it as the option to get himself ready would have been out of the window.  He doesn't like "speedy style" as it means that mommy gets to brush his teeth, hair and wipe his face - and yes dress him up - so we can be ready in 5 minutes instead of 15 minutes! And he does not like that either as he would rather do it "by self", as he says.

So -- I used the good ol' parenting tool - choices - i asked him to choose between working on the card + get speedy style dress up or - no card and you get to get ready "by self" - and the boy was torn and he asked if he can add a choice!!! What?  - yeah there's another option - how about if I work on the card and we do some "speedy style" and some "by self"? I said ok - as long as we are not late.  I set the timer for 10 minutes and told him that when the timer goes off I get to finish getting him ready "speedy style"... and offcourse baby brother couldn't be left out of the action - his big brother had gotten him to sit down and draw out a card for me as well -

The timer goes off - and my son was still "working on the card"...

I get over to the room where he is working on the card - trying hard not to get agitated as now we are really getting late.. and as I am getting ready to give him a little lecture - he turns around and says to me "Mommy - here's a card for you..." I looked at the card - and he said " I drew a picture of you and me enjoying the golden sun - do you like it???? "

Offcourse I love it! I feel guilty for a minute as my anger melts away - then I give him a huge hug and kiss - when he says - mommy we have to do speedy style or we'll be late....

At that moment - I realize something - maybe parenting is not soo much about us teaching kids what to do - its about following our intuition - and guiding our children to help them make the right choices - coz after all - we all end up happier when we work together to get things done - that includes getting ready for school in the morning!