Channeling Mom

This afternoon, I went to a twin play date at Kika's. She has twin boys and a older son Parker's age. When we arrived, someone inside was crying. We discovered it was Miles and he was having a tough time. Kika, who forgot she had to go pick up her older son from preschool, took Miles with her as he was still feeling grumpy. Liam, who was fine when we arrived, became immediately upset when Kika left. He went to the door and opened it. I went to shut it, which he did not like. He started crying, screaming "Mommy! Mommy!" This continued for a bit as Leslie (Isaac and Owen's mom) tried to talk to him or ask him he if wanted to play. Liam was having no part in this and became very upset, tossing over a big basket of shoes angrily.

That was when I got involved. I stood up, walked over to him, knelt down and without thinking channeled my mother. I said in firm, but not mean voice, "Liam, that is not ok. You are sad your mom is not here, but it's not time to cry right now. We can play or read books, but we are not going to cry. Your mom will be home soon. Let's go do something." And with that I took his hand and got up.

Amazingly (or not depending on your perspective), he took my hand, immediately stopped crying and walked with me willingly to the room where he read books with me until his mom came home. He was happy as a clam the rest of the time, playing stickers with Leslie in the living room.

I'm not sure why I did it. But I'm glad I did as Liam and I got a little closer today because of it.