Be Careful What You’re Teaching Your Kids…It Might Not Be What You Intend

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I generally don’t write about many events in my life just to write about them because I feel I can best serve you by providing you with information that you can apply in your own life. This post is kinda the best of both worlds as it’s a peek into my crazy life of totally self-inflicted craziness while also providing you with perhaps a good example of just what being an intentional mom could look like. This story has a moral, and it’s to be careful what you’re teaching your kids because it might not be what you intend.

If you’ve listened to me much, you may know that I am a big advocate of not parenting using the model “do as I say and not as I do,” and today my resolve was tested in this area.

I generally like to look a bit more put together in the things I post with a picture of me, but, today you get to see this picture of me that is less than flattering if I do say so myself.

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Here’s three things you need to know about this picture:

• Although in most things I feel like I’m 21, I am, in fact, 20 years older than that.
• My baby turned six weeks over the weekend, which means that I hit the gym using my full weights again yesterday and jumped right into my killer ab routine because I’m all smart like that. I had been going to the gym until the day I delivered and went back the day I came home from the hospital, but there is a difference between lifting light weights and lifting not so light weights. Yesterday was a great day and I thought I was bouncing right back…until I had to get out of bed this morning. I think you get my drift.
• I thrive on pushing myself physically. With some of the crazy stuff I do my sister has me call her after I get done so she knows I’m still alive. Again, sometimes common sense is not my forte.

So, here’s the story.

I figured that I could hobble myself to the gym and have a nice relaxing ride on the recumbent bike today so that at least I could get a workout of some kind in. With my mission in mind, which also included stopping by the post office to pick up a certified letter that I had to have today and missed, I headed out to my car.

Dead battery. Fantastic. I HAD to have that letter TODAY.

So, I came in the house, telling my kids about my dead battery and speaking a bit forcefully about how I needed that letter.

My well meaning 13 year old son piped up and said, “Mom, you’re a runner, just run there and get it.”

Here’s a pause in the story…

As a runner for more than 20 years, I must share my rules of running. I have broken these rules maybe three times….only one at a time in the past 20 years. These rules are written in blood.

• Never run on a full stomach
• Never run in the heat of the day
• Never run in wind stronger than 10 miles an hour
• When taking a challenging run, hydrate well the day before and the day of leading up to the run
• Never run when sick

After taking 5 months off to be pregnant and give birth, I have been known to start running at one week postpartum (remember my common sense mishaps at times?) but I must follow these rules when I start back:

• Start slow on a treadmill only one mile at a time, adding another mile each week…no hills
• Don’t push too much (kinda relative, but I’m not totally insane)

As a mom, I do some of the crazy athletic stuff I do to show my kids that they can do anything. When they question their own abilities, I remind them of the crazy things I’ve done and how I’ve needed IV fluids after a crazy race a time or two to demonstrate how they can do it as well. I push myself to my limits physically at times so my kids learn that at times, they can do this and be ok, too. That and I’m just nuts.

So, my son looks at me and tells me I should just run up there and get it. Two miles there and two miles back.

I pause and realize that I would be breaking every single one of my running rules. Every single one of them. I have not been able to start running again yet because I have been so very sick the majority of the time. I have learned that I only set myself back if I run before fully recovered from respiratory sicknesses.

Next, I realize to do this, I only have a short window of time to get there and back since I am breastfeeding a newborn on a feeding schedule.

Then, I realize that I can’t look my son in the eye and tell him I can’t do it, even if it means that I will have the time to run at one pace only…like lightening when it comes to someone being off running for five months.

What do I say? “Sure, I should just run up there and get it.” Made perfect sense.

When I got to the post office I think the lady in front of me in line was questioning my health, both physical and mental, but I was SO thankful that the line was long, even if it meant that I would have to run even faster on the way home.

While running home I was flashing to all kinds of scenarios that could happen including my husband finding me on the side of the road on his way home, having to pry my certified letter from the clutch of my cold, dead hand.

I decided that I may be able to make it if I took the shortcut in my neighborhood, through a bunch of yards and a common area.

Like seeing some water in a desert only to discover that it is a mirage, I came upon a huge group of kids playing kickball in this entire area. Not wanting to cut through the middle of everything for fear of embarrassing my kids when they heard about it, I had to go the loooong way around with not one, but two hills.

I did make it home to discover that my sweet baby was still sleeping, which meant that I could drop to the floor and moan while whispering for someone to bring me some water.

That picture up there? That was me after I “came to” a bit.

The lesson here?

Be careful what you teach your kids because it might not be what you thought you were teaching.

I’m back to having a fever, body aches, headache, and overall exhaustion. When I cough, I swear my abs are ripping in half. Clearly, I demanded things of my body that it wasn’t capable of delivering.

Remember my running rules? If I had really thought about it, I would have known that this would not turn out well.

Today, my kids learned not to be stupid, which wasn’t really what my intention was, although not an entirely bad lesson to learn.

That, and that having Ben Gay in the house is always a good idea.