Uncommon Sense

I figured that when you became a parent, you suddenly got some kind of Knowledge that you didn't previously have. I mean, parents know things that the rest of us don't, right? They know when a cough is just a cough and when it warrants a trip to the doctor. They know when it's cold enough for their kids to need a hat, even if they haven't been outside yet that morning. They know the nutritional value of every food on the planet AND know how to get their kids to eat their veggies. Right?

Turns out, not so much. Luke happily asks for extra veggies and then spends the next ten minutes feeding them not to the dog, but to ME. I never, EVER know when to take him to the doctor, so the end result is that usually, I don't. And then, when I finally do call them, they say something along the lines of, "Yeah, you should've brought him in two days ago." Oops.

But the worst one of all, the one that I really can't get a handle on is the weather one. My kid is CONSTANTLY the only one on the playground without a hat. Granted, this is partially because he only owns one hat that actually fits his head and we lost it sometime around November, but even back when it used to sit right beside his coat, he never wore it because...who wears hats? (Toddlers, apparently.)

A couple of days ago, it was sunny and wonderful looking outside, so instead of going to story time, we decided to go to the park. All I saw was the sun and the wonderful-ness and it just didn't even occur to me that it had rained the night before. When we got there and there were no other cars around, I should've been suspicious. I should've turned around and headed to story time. Instead, it took me until we actually walked onto a playground full of soggy, soaked equipment to realize that, huh--maybe not such a great day to be outside after all.

Of course, by that time, Luke and Other Baby had decided that playground + rain water = water park. So we went down slides and spun the merry-go-round and played on the swings and splashed in puddles and by the time we left, we all resembled drowned rats. That's when it occurred to me that the knowledge parents are supposed to have? Yeah, that's called COMMON SENSE. In which I am sadly lacking. But then again, if I'd had a healthier dose of common sense, we would have missed out on a lot of joy that morning.

(Plus, I was kind of scared we'd run into the crazy woman if we went to the bookstore for story time.)