my husband took this picture on our family vacation last year. the guys have just leaped off the top of the boat house and are seconds away from a cool lake plunge. again…that’s from the TOP of the boathouse…
what the picture doesn’t show is me on the upstairs porch of the boathouse. while the boys are flying through the air, i was doing my own emotional tarzan swing between joy and panic. complete with an anxious mother’s tarzan yell. a yell that mixes a gleeful measure of “whoopeeeeee” with the dissonance of “oh my god!”
it’s just the way it is. watching these antics. the best advice i ever received as a nervous-nelly mother was: “if it looks neurological, get involved. if it looks orthopedic, let it go.” i love that. it’s about the only way to live through raising boys i think.
i wouldn’t dream of stopping them. afterall, if they’re ever to leave the nest safely, they have to learn to fly first.