Mother Knows Best (or If Mom Suddenly Agrees with You, You Should Be Suspicious)

I know, it has been months since I have blogged. But I am going to just skip over all of that for now (I will post about our recent adventures sometime soon) and get straight to today.

Now, I am forty years old. To most people that means I have a little bit of experience in this world and might know what I am talking about. My five year old would beg to differ. Today, he begged to differ loudly and repeatedly.

Spring/early summer has come to Texas and to Andrew that means it is swimming weather. Admittedly, we have had a few days close to ninety degrees and I have set up the sprinkler in the back yard and let him run through it.

For his recent birthday, one of Andrew's friends gave him a Banzai Wigglin' Water Sprinkler. You hook it up to your water hose, lay it out in an "s" pattern on the lawn, and when you turn it on, these little spouts on the Banzai Wigglin' Water Sprinkler wiggle around and shoot water everywhere.

Andrew has been dying to try it out and, since he is wearing shorts today, he decided it must be warm enough to play in the water. He was determined to play in that sprinkler today.

Admittedly, the weather today was lovely. At 5:30 this evening (when all this went down), it was 77 degrees outside with a lovely breeze. Nice for sitting on the back porch with a drink but way too cool to play in the water. I tried to explain this to my child. Repeatedly. But, apparently, he has decided Mommy is an idiot and doesn't know what she is talking about.

We argued about this for about 20 minutes. And finally, I had had enough. Now, when someone has been arguing with you for 20 minutes about something and suddenly reverses their position, you should be suspicious. Unfortunately for Andrew, he doesn't know this yet.

So I said, "Fine. Take off all of your clothes and come out into the back yard. I am going to spray you down with the hose and, if you think it's warm enough, you can play in the sprinkler."

Andrew let out a whoop of joy and began stripping off his clothes. Adam looked at me like I had lost my mind and said "Are you serious?" I informed him I was serious and asked him to get a towel.

Well, you can imagine what happened next. Andrew ran out into the back yard butt naked, I turned the hose on him (c'mon people, not in the face--strictly from the waist down) and he burst into tears and after running around the yard for a minute or so wailing like a banshee, accused me of being mean. And grabbed the towel from his dad.

Maybe next time he will believe me when I tell him it's too cold to go swimming...? Not likely.