He Doesn't Care About Cool

This week I am talking about motherhood, some of the expectations, but more so the realities. I started by sharing how being a mom isn't always that cool, but then again at this point in my child's life I am the only one that has any concept of cool (if you could even call it that). What I mean is that I had dreams and ideas for my baby and just how cool they would be, only to realize that sometimes what is practical or kid-friendly doesn't always line up with what is trendy.

When I was pregnant with Z my husband and I would look at the stuff in the boutiques and talk about how we wanted to raise our child. Not the deep meaningful important stuff, but the shallow fun stuff like what kind of shoes they would wear. I envisioned my child wearing Chuck Taylor's, listening to Cold Play, and playing with organic blocks and everyday he would look like one of the angelic children from the Ralph Lauren ads.



Well, it didn't quite turn out that way. First of all he is cuter than a Ralph Lauren model, but he is a kid and he likes kid things, whether I think they are cool or not. For example I mentioned Barney in my blog post yesterday. It probably goes without saying, but out of all the kid programs that are out there that I wouldn't mind watching Barney is not one of them. I cringed the first time he saw Barney and started requested him by name. I wanted to whisper "You don't like Barney" over and over in his ear while he slept until he was brain washed out of his interest in the purple dinosaur. I used restraint though and let him have his Barney phase. In the end it didn't last long at all and it was actually kind of cute when he would sing I love you. I love me.

Of course sometimes we dress him up in cute outfits, and sometimes he rocks out to cool music (one his favorite songs is by Jon Foreman), but at 2 years old he is not trying to impress, which impresses me a lot. As long as it isn't something that I morally object to I am just going to let him be himself. So who cares if he likes to wear Lightning McQueen hand-me-downs, play with happy meal toys, and watches Thomas the Train. I have learned that I am not raising a rock star, a show dog, or a little clone of myself. I have a CHILD and he deserves to get to be just that.