I WON'T LET GO

At 3:00 p.m. yesterday, I could have predicted what was going to happen later on that night.

As soon as her cute little self closed the car door, she nervously said, "Mom...you are never going to guess what we did today. We Googled bad people in our area and there's a guy who hurts kids and lives near us."

Ohhhhhh great. And WHAT in the world were they doing be allowed to Google THAT?

So later that night I put her down, kissed her sweet face and she said it: "I'm scared, Mommy". I assured her we were safe. Lived in a safe place. It even has a gate around it. The doors have two locks and absolutely no way was mommy going to let anything happen to them.

She fell asleep.

About 30 minutes later, a light knock on my door. "Mom?" I hear in a really soft voice.

But it wasn't who I thought it would be. It was Ben.

He is notorious for getting melancholy late at night. Kind of a stall technique. But he always says the sweetest things when he's reminiscing, it's happening less and less these days (thankfully), and it only lasts about 5 minutes, so I take the time to listen to him instead of shooing him back to bed like I used to do. And that's about all it took and he was back in bed and sound asleep for the rest of the night.

But around 2:00 a.m. came the second little voice. She was shaking, her voice quivering and she was nervous to even come in there for fear I might not allow her to go to her friend's birthday party/sleepover on Saturday night. All she got out of her mouth was, "Mommy...I'm so sorry, but..." and I scooped her up and snuggled her in my bed. She started sobbing and was just shaking. It broke my heart.

I remember being that young and having fears that totally overcame me. It's so easy to say, "There is nothing to be afraid of. I'm going to protect you so just go to sleep". It's a whole other thing to believe it at such a young age.

It's tough business being a kid! Even tougher being an adult, but at least our brains are equipped with experience and knowledge. So we keep showing, not just telling, them that everything will work out for the best. Thankfully, I truly believe they have faith that it will also. They know without a doubt they are loved.


Always remember and never forget: There is no way to be a perfect parent, and a million ways to be a great one.

And imagine that...Rascal Flatts has a song just for the occasion...