So yesterday I had one of those heart-stopping-mom conversations with Miss 8. She got home from school and told me, in a very serious voice, that she wanted to have a private talk with me, in the bathroom, without her sisters.
She said that she really needed to talk to me.
Can I just tell you how many things went through my mind in that one second? Isn’t it remarkable how fast the human mind really goes?! I imagined about ten thousand different scenarios and none of them good.
I thought she might need advice about someone picking on her or some other tricky friend situation. I thought maybe she had some weird body growing situation going on- but then again, she’s only 8 so what on earth could that entail? Maybe she heard something about “you know what” and she had questions about it?! I did just have a baby after all and maybe she’s trying to piece together what she’s heard from family versus what she’s hearing from some naughty friends. . . .
I also, in that split second, was thankful for the fact that I had managed to read scriptures and pray that morning. Perhaps I would need divine inspiration for whatever she was about to hand to me! I quickly made a plan that if I didn’t know the answer to her question, I would tell her to give me some time to think it over, just so that I could make sure to give her the exactly perfect mom answer.
An answer that she would remember throughout her life,
and fondly quote to her own children and grandchildren. . . . .
So I follow Miss 8 into the bathroom with all of this running through my mind and she begins to explain. “So there’s this new PE teacher at school,” she says.
(More alarm bells go off in my head at this point,
and about a million more scenarios that I will not share at this time.)
Then Miss 8 says. . . . drum roll please. . . .”So this new PE teacher . . . . wants to take us to the YMCA.”
I am stunned silent with relief.
“The YMCA Mom, and I don’t know if that is ok with you because I don’t actually know what the YMCA is.”
Right now, I am filled with love toward the YMCA!!!!
