It was a Wednesday night in the Smith household.
Work was busy that day, productive, but busy and mentally exhausting.
I had no desire to cook dinner.
I picked up Jacob from his behind-the-wheel driving lesson at school.
I asked him what he wanted for dinner. We decided on subs from one of our favorite places.
I gave in to his request for cheese curds to go with his sub. That made him happy.
Score one for Mom.
It's the little things, right?
We picked up our food and the guy behind the counter commented on how much we look alike. Jacob and I had a fun conversation about whether we thought we actually did or not.
Glad to know that there's no disputing he's my kid, though.
On the drive home, I told Jacob he had to share his cheese curds with me.
He said "Okay, Mom, I'll give you one...the smallest one."
I laughed and said, "You'll either share or you can hand over all of the cheese curds!"
Then he said, "Oh...so there's a cheese curd ultimatum happening right now?"
Yep.
A cheese curd ultimatum.
I thought back to how many times I had similar conversations with my boys.
Generally not about cheese curds, but I think you get where I'm going with this.
I probably wouldn't use the word ultimatum in most cases either, although in this situation it was pretty funny.
You do this...and that will happen.
If you don't do this...that will happen.
It's really about consequences. For our actions or lack of them.
Consequences can be hard when you're parenting little kids. Especially deciding which ones are appropriate. I know I didn't always get that right.
Now that my boys are getting older, they are starting to experience more consequences that I don't hand down to them.
The consequences that come with adult decisions. Stuff that can have a real impact on their lives.
It's up to them to make the right choices, or to deal with the consequences if they don't.
It won't always be as easy as that cheese curd ultimatum.
But I'm glad we could laugh about it that night.
And now we'll have a new phrase that we can throw around when Jacob and I are hanging out together (like Mom Moments).
Ironically, when we got home and opened up the bag of food, the cheese curds were only half full in the container. Disappointing!
I pulled them out of the bag and one fell onto the counter in front of me.
Jacob said, "There's your one cheese curd Mom!"
I took it and smiled.
I didn't even really want more than one cheese curd.
Not even when I said that in the car and put forth the cheese curd ultimatum.
That cheese curd was good though.
And so was our night.
Smiles and laughs, simple meals and shared moments.
A break from the give and take of choices and consequences in life.
There will be plenty of that tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.
Take the simple moments when they come.
And if there are cheese curds involved, make sure you share!
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