O and Ro “Where’s Waldo?”-Style

This spring, the hubs built a play yard for O and Ro in the middle of our backyard. He even managed to top it off with the same copper doo-dads he used on the main fence. I can’t argue that I deserve him, but I will go nasty on anyone who “comes between me and my man!”

Name that (Broadway) tune. That would be Irving Berlin’s “Sisters.” Just call me the keeper of semi-useless knowledge. I say “semi” because clearly it came in handy here. I’m getting off track, huh?

Back to the fence! This play yard has given O and Ro hours of delightful playtime while I work away via laptop and unreliable Internet connection. (Thus this fab little pic.) Yes, we wanted a fun and safe place for them to play, but we also wanted a poop-free zone where our Basset hounds hadn’t (repeatedly) marked their territory. It’s proven to be a daily haunt, and I am super duper thankful for it. Better yet, I “lurve” it.

Name that movie!

Anywho, imagine my surprise when in my bliss someone likened this play space to a jail cell. That it was a bad thing. Despite all the fun it’s given the girls. Do you know it almost ruined the whole enchilada for me?

Why is it that someone criticizing your parenting can just cut you to the core? To be honest, it wrecked me for a while, and sent me reeling toward “raising toddler” books to affirm me. Bless you for asking, I did find it. But I’m pretty T.O.-ed with myself that I ever went searching for it! I seriously need a thicker skin–like an armadillo, but cuter.

Oh, fellow parents in the trenches ranging from toddler to teens to 20-somethings, when will we (that’d be me) learn that our identity doesn’t come from our kids, our jobs, or anything else we try to pin it to? I’m realizing more and more that when someone makes a critique like this, it’s more about their own experience than mine. Either that or the hubs and I created a jail cell in our own back yard. Fingers crossed for the prior.

Parenthood is no joke, y’all, so we should probably go easy on the fellow trench-trodden, including ourselves.