Papaw Knows Everything

Celia has been obsessed with the new swing in the back yard the past few days. My dad, otherwise known as Papaw, set it up for the kids over the weekend, and the kids can't get enough swinging now. It's great to have something fun for the kids to do outside, but swinging them is tedious for Mommy. Luckily, Mike taught Celia how to pump her little hot dog legs so she can fly on that swing. She is so proud of herself and has asked me twice already to make videos of her swinging to show various family members what a big girl she is and how she's exercising. She kept telling me today that she looked like Tinkerbell. The only connection that I could see between the shapely, blonde, winged Tinkerbell and my cherubic brunette wearing a flowery jumper, mismatched green polka dot bow and ruby slippers was that Celia felt like she was flying. This girl was on a high and Papaw is responsible for this joy.



She knows that her Papaw knows a lot about multitudes of topics and knows how to do just about everything. She knows this because whenever she asks me an unanswerable question about animals, plants, planets...well just about anything...I tell her that we should ask Papaw. And if something is broken or needs to be built, I tell them we should ask Papaw if he can help us. My dad is one handy dude and if he doesn't know how to do it himself, he'll read about it, fiddle with it, and figure it out by golly. And so he gets asked by my sister, mom, and me often to help out with all kinds of tasks from putting in a dimmer switch in each of our dining rooms to constructing puppet theaters to building swingsets for the kids. Oh, and he has a truck, so yeah, he's pretty much Mr. Move-It on top of all the other chores he's qualified to do. And the best thing about him is that he's "tickled to do it!"



So, as Celia was swinging today on her Papaw-installed flying machine, she noticed that her sand box was empty. I went looking for replacement sand in the garage and couldn't find it. When I told her that I didn't know where it was, she said, "Maybe we should call Papaw. He knows everything." I guess I've used the line a few too many times.



I have to say that I remember so many times when my dad knew everything when it came to parenting, too, and I often ask myself how he would have handled a situation. I remember it was Dad telling me that I had to stop sucking my thumb because I'd give myself buck teeth if I didn't. He always had an explanation for why I needed to do things. He never just told me "because I said so." He turned everything into a learning opportunity.

I remember once seeing a plastic fishing worm sitting out on the end table. I was probably about six or seven. I started playing with it, seeing how far a could stretch the wiggly thing. I stretched it just a little bit too far and it snapped apart. Not a kid who got into much trouble, I panicked and placed the worm back where I found it with the two pieces as close together as I could place them so it wasn't immediately obvious that it was broken, I thought. Worried at how disappointed Dad would be, I fled to my room to play and hope for the best. Dad called me into the living room a bit later and said, "Hey, Becky, come here. I want to show you something." I sheepishly re-entered the room. He lit a match and showed me how simple a fix it was. The two plastic halves melted right back together. I was in awe of how smart Daddy was and how he could fix anything.

Now that I'm a parent myself, I still marvel at how much he knows about...well...just about everything. But what impresses me more is how, with seeming ease, he knew that little-miss-never-gets-in-trouble was already punishing herself for the mistake and no more needed to be said about it. He knew that his forgiving actions spoke volumes to me and that I shouldn't be afraid to tell my parents when I'd made a mistake. I could trust them completely to help me make things better and forgive me. As I muddle my way through parenting three tiny tots, I hope to teach them the same lessons. What a great model my parents have been! I have so much to live up to!