Picking my battles

Lots of people, when giving you parenting advice, will tell you to choose your battles. It's sound advice. It's probably something that parents have to do every day. Sure, you can eat your spaghetti with a spoon but you may not have ice cream for dinner. Yes, you may wear your Snow White costume to the library, but you may not wear it in the bathtub. Stuff like that. You have to decide what is the bigger battle. Is it worth the fight? Allowing your children to do some silly stuff that you don't really agree with is just part of letting them grow up and learn to make good decisions. If people don't ever make mistakes, they don't ever learn how to fix things and do them the right way. I say this because I hope people aren't so quick to judge other moms when they see that kid in the Snow White costume at the library. When I pick up my little girl from pre-school, I see girls there with perfect braids in their hair and they're wearing the cutest little outfits and look all sweet and spiffed up. Then, there's my kid wearing shiny green shoes, purple leggings and a pink dress. If there was something in her hair, she's pulled it out by now. There's my oldest too. She thinks that wearing blue pants and a blue shirt is matching colors. If I give her grey pants, she says blue and grey don't match. So, she wears a royal blue long-sleeved shirt under a light blue short-sleeved shirt and navy blue pants. She doesn't understand yet that the blues don't necessarily match each other. But, she likes it and that's good enough for me. This morning, she went to school in flip-flops. Yes, it was raining outside when she left the house, but I let her wear them. She had a valid argument. When she went to school on Monday, it was 70 degrees and lots of kids were wearing flip-flops. Since she found out the footwear was allowed, she was excited to don hers to school. Okay, but it's raining. But, Mom, it's not fair that I don't get to wear them. Sure, go ahead. I know when she comes home, she'll have regretted her decision. I know she'll be sitting on the school bus and in class this morning with wet feet sliding around on her wet shoes wishing she didn't wear them. But that's okay. That's the consequence of her decision. She will learn that wearing flip-flops in the rain is not always the best idea. She will also learn that her mother is always right. But that's a battle she'll have to deal with on her own.