blueberry lessons - part 1

Last week, I picked blueberries with the kids. My mother-in-law came along to help me pick and wrangle Jem and Tru. My sister-in-law came along to watch over Caia. They had both picked their own blueberries the week before and generously spent another hour in the blazing sun with me so that I could pick some.
And while I enjoyed picking berries I spent more time worrying than actually enjoying the experience. What was I worrying about? The first thing was my kids. Overall, they did a pretty good job. They stayed with us. They didn't run around yelling and pushing each other. They didn't bother other people. But they did put more blueberries into their mouths than their buckets. And no matter how many times I reminded them that they needed to pick the berries, they just didn't listen. At the end, I had to send Truett out of the blueberry patch to walk with Yaya and Caia because he had resorted to grabbing handfuls of berries out of my bucket and cramming them into his mouth.
The truth though, is that I wasn't worried so much about the fact that they were eating berries. I was worried about the fact that they kept announcing it very loudly. "Mommy, that berry was great!" "Mommy, I just ate a huge berry." "Mommy, I can't stop stuffing my face with berries!"
And I was cringing inside thinking that people around us were looking at me and thinking about how I'm an awful mom for allowing my kids to steal blueberries. That if I had more control over them, I wouldn't let them eat so many berries. That I'm a terrible, terrible person. Seriously. These are the thoughts going through my head while I'm picking blueberries. Sad, I know. I was unable to enjoy the time with my children because I was too busy worrying about what the complete strangers around us might or might not have been thinking about my parenting skills.

to be continued...


photo by:brielegrandfromage  http://www.flickr.com/photos/brielegrandfromage/4740716357/in/photostream/