Dear Mama: This Summer, Be the One

Be the one who goes under because you know wet hair is a small price to pay for rapturous giggles.

Be the one who looks for snakes under rocks and flings your bathing-suit-clad self on the Slip ‘N Slide and hopes for survival because you are making memories.

Dear Mama: This Summer, Be the One

Adrian Wood

Be the one who knows some of the best afternoons are filled [with] scraps of paper, dabs of glue, sprinkled glitter, and a kind heart because those are the ones you will tuck away so as to remember.

Be the one who eats fried chicken splayed in the grass because there is time enough for proper manners and sitting in chairs.

Be the one who jumps on the trampoline until you pee in your pants because you remember that those you jump with are the whole reason you sacrificed your bladder.

Be the one who builds castles and goes to the zoo because you shall remember those small hands clutching lettuce for a precocious giraffe.

Be the one who ignores the laundry on a Sunday afternoon, closes the blinds, and helps build a pallet for movie watching because the feeling of those feet and hands encountering your person will be a weight you never regret.

Be the one who goes on the boat even though you long for a pedicure and a cozy nap because the sun on your face, the wind past your ears and the squeals of little people will remind you what it feels like to be alive.

Be the one who drinks in long hot days, shrieking little people, and melting popsicles because you value the chaos in the moment.

Be the one who remembers they won’t be children forever and someday is not so important because today is the best stuff.

This summer, be the one.

***

This article originally appeared at TODAY Parenting, published with permission.


Adrian Wood
Adrian Wood
Adrian H. Wood, PhD is a mother of four cherubs and author of the Facebook blog, Tales of An Educated Debutante, where satire meets truth, faith meets irony, & this educated debutante escapes the laundry and finds true meaning in graceful transparency.

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