Even though I'm not the oldest in my family, I am very much a Type A personality. I like things a certain way...my way. I like things organized, clean, straight, symmetrical, level, lined up, hung up, in its place. If there's a picture askew at a doctor's office or a friend's house, I have to fix it. If the pillows on my bed aren't a certain way, I have to fix it. One could argue that my life as a mom of 4, living in a chaotic house, and working as an ER nurse wouldn't work well with my idiosyncrasies, and some days it doesn't, but for the most part it helps me navigate the storm. But some days the chaos teaches me to sit back and embrace the crooked lines, the cockeyed picture, and the mess. Sometimes, what's more important is to teach your kids the feeling of hard work and accomplishment. The feeling of doing the right thing not because someone asked you, not because someone's paying you, and not for the recognition, but because it's the kind thing to do. Sometimes it's more important to foster the feelings of independence, responsibility, and pride knowing you're old enough to do something you've never been allowed to do before, than to micromanage the way they're doing it. In life we often get hung up on what we didn't do, and forget about all the stuff we got done. We have to worry less about the strip of grass that was missed, and enjoy the whole lawn that was mowed.
When Liam was done, my grandmother unexpectedly gave him two 1964 Kennedy half dollars from her jewelry box that she's had saved forever. They're worth no more than $0.50 each, but Liam told me "I'm never spending these, they're really special. They don't make them anymore." He put them in his room on his bureau where they're likely to stay forever, never used, never spent, but likely to always be remembered where he earned them.
