By Shya Gibbons of VintageDreamsWithAModernTwist
There are several memorable mothers inhabiting cartoons: the mother from Berenstain Bears who always sports her signature robin’s egg frock, the mother from Doc McStuffins who is an accomplished doctor, and Didi Pickles from Rugrats who has a solid group of friends that always plans play dates together. That is just to name a few characters, out of the vast amount of fictitious moms our children see and sometimes equate to us.
Then there are the mothers that endure a lot and keep moving forward. Day after day, step after step, whiny and bratty meltdown after whiny and bratty meltdown (I am looking at you, Caillou’s mom.) There is one, though, who stands out above the rest. She is cool as a cucumber. She is collected and has boundless energy. She always has play dates at her home where the children make messes and leave toys everywhere. Does she get mad, though? Nope. She sings an appropriate song for the situation: “Clean up, pick up, put away. Clean up, every day.”
When she makes a delicious dinner and Daniel refuses to eat, she sings: “You gotta try new food ‘cause it might taste good.”
She has a song for everything, and her songs and her style of parenting are now being imposed on me. Last week my son wanted to bake muffins like Danny Tiger and his mother did. I agreed, only to find out we were missing most of the ingredients. Yesterday he said he wanted to hold hands with me and walk through the Enchanted Garden. The only enchanted thing around here he will be seeing is the toilet. I told him it had a spell cast on it, and after you do your business and finish, the potty will flush magically.
We are still working on potty training, which I am thinking actually never ends. Every time he goes to the bathroom we sing, “If you have to go potty STOP and go right away. Flush, and wash, and be on your way.”
IN WHAT WORLD DOES SHE THINK IT IS THAT EASY? Potty training, even while singing the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood potty song, still results in pee on the floor and clothes, pee on the dog if he decides to join us in the bathroom since they are inseparable, and a child that is smart enough to know he will get a diaper at nap time and bed time every day so he holds his poop until then.
Mom Tiger is crushing this parent game, and I think that we, as parents, should strive to be as amazing as she is. I have heard from credible sources that Mom Tiger will, in fact, be canonized for the saint that she is.
Heed my advice: You know what you get if you do not take trips to magical gardens and bake muffins with your children? You get a kid like Caillou. Now think to yourself: Is that what you want? No. No one wants that.
Now let us hop on the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood trolley and ride off into the sunset where the town is sort of like Cheers, where everyone knows your name, everyone knows your business, but no one cares because they are a close-knit group of parents who are always up for an adventure (or a hearty song that will become permanently attached in your brain).
*****
About the Author
Shya Gibbons is a full-time CEO (also called a stay-at-home-mom) to a precocious, blue-eyed three-year-old, and runs the blog Vintage Dreams With A Modern Twist. She is happily married to a gorgeous man who doubles as her best friend, and who loves her even on her worst days. She was born, raised and still lives in a picturesque small town where she has stacked up hundreds of bylines at the local newspaper. When she is not writing for fun, she likes to cook big dinners and bake. In her free time she likes to binge watch seasons of shows at a time where she gets far too attached to fictional characters. Her work was recently featured in the book I Just Want To Be Perfect. You can find more of her work on Facebook.