Spending time with Mr 3

So I spent the day with my three year old son today.
That's nothing new in itself, after all I am a stay at home mum (SAHM if youre into wanky talk).
But since I have started my life-style makeover (thats better than midlife crisis, dont you think?), I thought I would come at my son-time from a different angle too...

We were driving back from dropping my daughter at school, and I realized what a completely gorgeous day it was, I was scheduled to go to the gym, but, well, um, I didnt. So the boy and I packed a morning tea and drove a pretty long distance to his favourite park. If you know me well, you will understand that, it being magpie swooping season, I really meant business, we were going to have fun damn it!
Now, I take the kids to the park a few times a week, and lets face it, kids like it but its fairly... under-stimulating if your kids just bolt off and play together, which mine do. Today, I decided to really get in and focus on what Mr 3 wanted to do, and we had the Best Time. I watched him climb with all the confidence of his alter-ego Spider Man, we played chase, hide and seek and I pushed him on the swing about six million times... and it was FUN! Why was it different today? Because I was mindful of where I was and what I was doing. I didnt look at my watch, or phone, I didnt think about housework or reading my book, or having a nap... I dont know if the grass was greener over there, cause I didnt bother to look around.
I know that I am not the only one, so lets be brutally honest, three year old boys who talk tirelessly all day long, mostly about super hero's, blowing things up and smashing things til they're dead, are pretty boring. Yes I said it, they are eye wateringly tiresome more than half of the time. Anyone who isnt a Stay at Home Mum, or isnt one any more, will find that shocking, and bad-motherly. But its bloody true. Having said that, I have to tell you what I learned from my exercise this morning: my son is so funny, so charming, so fearless, so imaginative and such good company; all I had to do to see it was get down to his level and just enjoy him. You can get too much of a good thing being a Stay At Home Mum, sometimes you forget to stop and smell the preschooler.

I know I am blessed to be able to stay at home, sure we go without some stuff having only one income, and my husband has never tried to force me back to work. In-fact if I think back real far and squint my eyes, I think this is actually what I wanted. I have made a mental note to stop when Mr 3 is shitting me, and get down to his level, and rediscover our fun selves. He probably spends his quiet times thinking what an irritating bore I am with my constant cleaning, running errands, moaning and cooking, but today, I have been the very embodiment of a Fun Mum. We washed the car together when we got home, which was really enjoyable too, but after 20 minutes of playing 'trains', I had to draw the line and retire Fun Mum, because no matter how hard I might try, playing 'trains' makes hanging the washing seem like Carnivale....