Train up a child in the way they should…no

In our house, we like to celebrate the little parenting wins. Wins like:

• Getting both kids bathed at least every other day
• Being on-time-ish literally anywhere
• Keeping both kids fed – even if a mid-morning snack is yesterday’s fossilizing hot dog from under the couch (hey, fed is fed, right??)
• Peeing alone – and no one dies
• A day where Nash does NOT empty the 150-pack of sandwich bags from the bottom drawer in the kitchen (No, we haven’t baby proofed because no one has time for that)
• A successful grocery run without having to leave carrying one or both of my fit-prone children out like footballs
• An unprompted “thank you” from Piper
• An outing without any uncomfortable questions for total strangers (ex: Why do you only have one leg?)

We celebrate the little wins around here because in short, parenting is just a clumsy display of epic failures. Too much screen time. Not potty trained before age one. Not enough organic food intake. Doesn’t stand on her star in dance class. Doesn’t always say “yes ma’am” because saying “yea” is just more fun.

My favorite parenting win thus far is my three year old’s kind heart towards animals. When I was little – I never played with Barbies or dolls. Instead, I would collect frogs and lizards and turtles (and I never got salmonella so just calm down) – and every cat, dog, horse or goat was fair game for everlasting petting. Piper is following suit – and my heart is so happy.

However, this weekend, she took her kindness for all God’s creatures to a brand new level. My husband left a strawberry milkshake on the kitchen counter because our kitchen fairy cleans up after everyone. It’s truly magical (spoiler alert: I am the kitchen fairy).

So while our children indulged in some taboo afternoon screen time in the den – Tye and I tackled some yard work. I was heading up the back steps to grab a bottle of water when I heard the familiar buzzing of house flies and noticed the wide open back door – because we love to personally help cool the state of South Carolina. In addition to the open door, I noticed WHY we had accumulated an army of flies. Sweet Piper had taken it upon herself to pour Tye’s abandoned strawberry milkshake down the stairs. A sticky milkshake waterfall baking in the afternoon heat – an oasis for all the bugs in Forest Acres. She stood in the doorway beaming with pride.

I asked her,

“Pipes… why did your pour daddy’s milkshake down the stairs?” To which she happily replied, “I wanted to feed the flies.” Fair enough. I pressed her on why she left the door open. Her obvious response, “I didn’t want the flies to be hot.”

Toddler kindness towards “the least among you:” parenting win. Parenting fail: forgetting to explain the cost-value of air conditioning in the summer, and the consequences of leaving the door open for flies. It’s Monday at 3:23 p.m. and every few minutes… a fly buzzes by. With a full belly, I’m sure.

Good job, Pipes.