I was watching an old re-run of Roseanne the other day.  They were all at the dinner table celebrating something and called for a family “toast”, at which point they each picked up their spoons, full of food, and flipped the spoon at each other.  They laughed loudly (you know Roseanne), with mashed potatoes on their faces.  Now that would have never flown in my house (literally)!  I would have had a full blown conniption  fit if my kids decided to throw food all over each other.  But that was when I was younger.  I know, I know…it’s a little backwards, but now that I’m older and my kids are almost grown, I think I might like to have some mashed potatoes on my face! 

Why don’t we have more fun?  Why are we so up-tight?  What’s the worst that could happen?  We might have to mop the floor (but that’s why we have kids!) or pick peas out of your hair, but so what???  The other night I listened to my five teenagers sitting around reminiscing (aren’t those the BEST times?) and I realized something.  Of all the stories they told, I was not in any one of them.  Oh, Dad was there, Dad was always fun (he’s my sixth teenager).  What I looked forward to was Dad taking all of them to Grandma’s for the weekend so that I could be alone…..and clean!!!  While they are out making memories they will share for the rest of their lives, I was cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, running errands or all of the many hundreds of other things my family required of me.  Oh, I always deep-cleaned the kids rooms, re-arranged it and bought something new for it and they had the absolute coolest rooms!  But oddly, that didn’t make the top stories during the story-telling session!!

So, while the kids are still home, maybe a couple more years, I’m going to have some fun! After all, you only know that you’re old when you forget how to play.   Learn from my mistakes, go ahead and throw peas at your daughter.  Let the kids have air soft wars in the house or shaving cream wars in the back yard.  Choose a wall and let them draw or paint or make a family tree.  Let them have snakes, they’re not so bad and it’s really pretty cool to watch them  swallow a mouse.  Just don’t scream if you find it in your bed, be cool, that’s what Dad does!  Let them stay up late sometime on a school night or have chocolate cake for breakfast!  And on New Year’s Eve, toast them with champagne!!  Make it your goal to be in every one of their stories……you’ll be the coolest mom EVER!

So go grab that big huge  blue and orange water soaker and get your son out of bed!!