Walking The Walk

In our book Mommy Guilt we give an example of the mom who is rushing around like mad trying to get everyone out of the house and into the car. That was me yesterday morning. So I did exactly what we recommend in our book, I told my shoeless 5 year old that we'd put his shoes on when we got to his day camp because if we took the time now, we'd be late dropping off his 9 year old brother. All went smoothly as the three of us raced from the house to the garage, 5 year old with shoes in hand and no yelling. Perfect! We drop off the 9 year old and I drive on to the day camp to drop off the 5 year old. We arrive at camp and I realized that asking the 5 year old to "grab his shoes" was a tactical error on my part. Yes, he grabbed his shoes, but he grabbed two different shoes AND they were both the "right" shoe. 5 year old is not too happy about this since being 5 he is an expert on how everything "must" be. I persuade him to put both shoes on and walk him over to the counselor who greets the 5 year old with "Are you ready for our hike to the magic rocks?" OMG! I kiss the 5 year old goodbye and let him know that I will return with a left shoe soon and off he goes. On my way home I call Aviva and tell her about what happened. And she asks "So did you tell him it was "Crazy Shoe Day" and leave?" I laughed and said "Well, if he were sporting a mismatched left and right shoe , yeah I would have, but since they are both the same foot, I'm heading home on a recon mission." (Keep in mind that if this had been an older child, I would not have *saved* him, but given that he is only 5, I felt this was a mitigating circumstance, coupled with the fact that I should have double checked the shoe choice he made.) Oops! I returned to the camp with the shoe. The counselor told me that the hike went well and that "Lefty had a good time." I guess the moral of the story, is if you are gonna walk the walk, check the shoes too!