Musings on Families

Sometimes being a family therapist isn't something I can turn off. Luckily, there are lots of times when I notice really great things about families because of the way I watch when I don't even know I'm doing it. Case in point, we spent this weekend with one of my dearest friends who is currently living on the other side of my fair state. This is the closest she's lived to me in YEARS since she's married to (and was in) the Air Force. They have two wee boys, 3y and 5mo old. {As a catty sidenote, 5mo post baby and her jeans are way smaller than mine. Harumph.} We went running Saturday morning, all 5 of us, in their neighborhood.......3 adults, two strollers, must have been quite a sight. It was really fun, and shocking for me since I could actually keep up. Truth be told I could have kept going, which was even more shocking since I don't consider myself to be in very good shape. My clothes from before I met NG don't even consider going over my hips, its really sad to have 1/2 a wardrobe.

Anyway, tangent aside, at the end of our run the 3yo, well, wasn't done! He wanted to stay outside and keep running! When you're 3 and you aren't actually running, it's super fun to snuggle up under a blanket and get pushed around the neighborhood on a beautiful morning! Who would want that to end??? According to his wonderful mother, he had a horrible and very embarassing tantrum. I totally missed it and I was standing right there. What I saw was an upset little boy ("Wipe my tears please Mommy") with two validating and consistent parents who set limits. Shocking. Who knew???? He was sad, it was okay that he was sad, and we were still going inside. Dry it up, end of story, "tantrum" over.

In the meantime, I get to watch a dad who feeds and diapers and participates in parenting. This is not always the case, not always the case in my own family, and I love to see this! Especially when Mom stays home, I've seen so much "well you have your job and I have mine", its really refreshing to see some participation. I feel very sure NG is going to be the participatory kind, especially seeing how he reacts to the opposite.
So these are my musings. Funny enough, they have nothing to do with steps and fulls and halves and whatnot. Families are families, they all look different, they all have "issues", and onward we go.