I was ready, willing and able to get wet!

Parenting can be so hard sometimes. We hit our knees and ask "why" alot! Having 5 children, I remember the days when they were small, all at the same time, and we had foster kids too and thinking...."what were we thinking?" Take one look at my handsome husband and well, the rest is history! Anyway, I do recall having to discipline someone several times an hour to keep each on the right path to less chaos in my home. I remember praying, "will this ever get easier?" Of course, I was always interrupted before getting my answer by someone screaming in pain or delight, whichever it was it sent me to my feet running to make sure I didn't need my biohazard kit to clean up.

Labor Day was a beautiful day! My dad kept saying, "this has been such a great day, a perfect day." He was right! Awesomeness! We slipped away from the parents house to take a dip in the community pool on its last day of operation before the winter set in. We took the kids, now 10 and up to 18, to play in the pool. My days of worrying about their safety in the pool are over which leaves me plenty of time to converse with my mom and observe people. This can be scary. Not talking to my mom....observing others.

As my mom and I were in deep discussion on how to solve world peace and what-not my ears perked up as a father from the neighborhood approached a mother with a squirt toy and said, "I've told your kid to stop spraying kids in the face and he won't, so I took this from him and you need to do something about your kid." He wasn't yelling or being inappropriate, he was quite calm about the whole thing. Way to go Mr. Mom! The mom took the squirty toy and of course took it to the lifeguard station and let them take it, because as we all know, it's the weapons fault not the shooter's inability to recognize right from wrong! She then proceeded very slowly to the side of the pool right next to our table and told her son that was not nice and he needed to get out of the pool so they could leave. "No!" This was the standard answer for every pleading command she spit out of her mouth. This went on for several minutes. My head turned so fast at the first sassy mouthed comment out of this child's dental oriphus that I couldn't really imagine that he was gonna get out alive. But he did. I was willing to jump in with ALL of my clothes and hand him over! He kept moving out of arms reach from his mom with that grin, the one that makes you want to just.....well anyway, he was smiling. Mom finally gave up and would repeatedly come back to the side of the pool to see if he was ready yet. You'll never guess what his answer was. Between visits from mom he continued to torture the other children in the pool. She must be so proud.

I really felt as though I was in the twilight zone with this woman. I wanted to feel sorry for her because she obviously didn't know the correct disciplinarian tactics to nip this in the bud. She must be a new mom, I thought. This little 3 or 4 yo must be her only spawn. Oh no, there are more. From teen to little damian in the pool there must have been 5 or so. Oh dear one!

As I searched for Nanny 911's number, email, whatever..... she snuck out the door with all kids in tow. I am glad I'm not a neighbor. I don't know if I could hold back discipline if I actually knew she wasn't gonna hit me or press charges for jerking her kid out of the pool. Paleez!

Friends, family, food, fun, swimming, football in the street, lemon bars, laughter and the adrenaline rush of possibly taking down a three year old.....priceless Labor Day! Dad was right, it was perfect!

God Bless all of us in our parenting. Bless the children as they learn along with us! Bless the lady from the pool and bless her kids!

Bless 'em Lord, bless 'em.