Can we make a fort?

Can we get the craft "stuff" out?

Can we play in the sprinklers?

Yes, kids. Yes, you may.

You may take up residence in my family room with excessive, messy force.

You may fill my dining room table with an assortment of papers, markers, stickers, and glue.

You may fill my backyard with shrieks of laughter, and my laundry room with extra towels to wash, dry, and fold.

Because I love you, I am giving you permission to expand the territories of your imagination. Truthfully, I am giving up a small corner of my sanity for your satisfaction.

It may not seem like much, but there will come a day when you will understand the enormity of my patience and understanding. That moment when your own child will look up at you with their best "I'll get her" face, and ask the question you are dreading... "Can we?"

As your mother, I want the best for you. And sometimes the best scenario for you, is not the most pleasant for me. It involves creative license when all I want is control and a limit on the amount of paper and tape used in a craft project.

And there are those days when your bedroom floors are covered in Legos, and I'm tempted to cry in frustration over one. more. mess. - And then, I see you off to the side, and you have created one of the coolest, most creative structures I've seen yet.

I don't know how you did it.

And then I remember... It's because I said... "yes."