Cool Mom/Bad Friend

Recently Isaiah has been OBSESSED with building Hero Factory guys. However he believed his creations could be better if he had more sets. I disagreed. I thought his guys were great just they way they were plus he already owns TWELVE sets. It's not like he is deprived or anything. Finally after much discussion I came to realize the reason he wanted more sets was because some of the guys have capes and his do not. CAPES. The epitome of cool in little boy world. And that is when I knew I had the potential to remedy this situation AND be the coolest mom ever! I could sew capes. A free and (relatively) easy solution! Yay! A total mom win.

About fifteen minutes and two silver capes later I had a happy six year old boy:) 

Fast forward a week and Isaiah was asking for yet another cape. A black cape. I gave a vague promise to make one later. Later came around on Saturday afternoon as I was (finally!) cleaning out and organizing my very neglected and wreck of a sewing area (in the basement). At the same time Isaiah was playing in the basement and keeping one eye on my fabric sorting and shuffling. He quickly spotted the perfect black fabric. It was a child sized cape that was in my mending pile...and had been buried there for over a year! He immediately asked me to cut it into a Hero Factory sized cape and I agreed (because it was felt and would not need to be hemmed). Easy peasy. 

30 seconds later a Hero Factory cape was created and my boy was happy (again)! And then it dawned on me, that cape I had just cut up...it wasn't mine! It was my friend's cape. Well technically it was my friend's son's cape. She had asked me to repair it...not this past Halloween but the year before this one. I agreed and promptly forgot about it. That alone would make me a pretty pathetic friend. But then once it was finally unearthed, instead of fixing it I cut it up! Oops. That officially put me in bad friend territory. 

(Thankfully my friend is a much better friend than I and immediately forgave me once I confessed.)

See. Doesn't he look happy? His cape-less friend on the other hand might not be so excited about our miniature cape creations...

For about 48 hours I was able to enjoy my cool mom status. Lots of pats on my own back included:) Monday afternoon while walking home from Isaiah's school with all three kids, I decided to try to conquer the smart/responsible/caring mom role too. Since the girls were contained in the stroller and we had about 20 uninterrupted minutes of walking ahead of us, I decided to have an important life conversation with Isaiah. 

I started by giving him a theoretical situation. "A stranger approaches you and wants to show you something and/or give you something and wants you to go with him/her...what should you do?"  He wisely answered "tell him/her no and walk away". I added that he should RUN AWAY and tell an adult he trusts. Second scenario "a person - child or adult - asks to see or touch your privates...what should you do?" Similar response. Third scenario "a person - child or adult - shows you his/her privates and asks you to touch them...what should you do?" Again similar response. Every time he knew to say no and leave but didn't know to tell an adult. The last scenario I presented was bullying. And again I asked what he would do. We then talked a bit more extensively about bullying and the correct response (i.e. not saying mean things back or getting physical). I ended the conversation by adding "it will probably happen to you sooner or later because it happens to almost everyone".

Isaiah immediately had a look of HORROR on his face. He timidly asked me, "All of them? All of them will happen to me?"

So much for being the cool and responsible mom! I of course assured him I was ONLY referring to bullying, but he still looked quite terrified. I really hope I didn't scar my poor child...