Buddha parenting

Good Morning,

Well, you may have noticed that there was no Monday Morning e-mail last week. I was in Vermont. Vermont this time of year is everything you can imagine...beautiful sky, clear blue mountain lakes, chill to the bone cold, warm apple cider...

Like much of the country it is also flu season. Soon after I arrived I discovered what I would be sitting down at the Thanksgiving table to say I am thankful for...

I am thankful for my health and Pedialyte.

For three days in a beautiful home in Vermont, I watched as my friend parented a sick toddler. I have never changed a diaper and I will offer that the one time I held a newborn infant I described that it felt like holding a sack of potatoes...

Anyway... : (

Although this little one could count among his team of care a NICU nurse (neonatal ICU), a pediatrics floor nurse (the next door neighbor), and a mother working on a specialization in Hospice care nursing...(i believe we had him covered...) STILL the experience of being home alone when a toddler has their first all night barfing experience is SCARY!!!

The evening had been going so well. Mama #1 had left for work. She brings home the muffins working the night shift at a hospital in Burlington, a one hour commute away. The baby had "eaten" half a cheese stick, showered the dogs with crackers, and made a most accurate two-handed toss of a sippy cup into the cats' water bowl. He delighted in bath time...dumping buckets of water on his head, splashing the ducky in the water so hard my friend and I had to hold up towels to catch the aftersplash and muffle the cheers fit for Shamu (oooo ahhh yayyy!!! clap clap clap).

Freshly bathed lathered, lotioned, and powdered the child sporting head to toe cuteness in PJ's continued to delight and entertain with kid games. A newly constructed nylon play thingee (Crawl and Play hut?) had tunnels to explore and a monster to find...my friend crouched hidden behind a hanging door. Much to my surprise I found hidden among the loads of toys the timeless yet always engaging $1.49 floaty ball. You know the one, swirled like an Easter egg kept in mass at the bin at the end of the grocery store aisle, and mostly good for causing a fit? We had no kicking, screaming, or crying just happy games of toddler running and tossing and tossing and catching the running toddler.

Anyway, my point? Things were going well. Perhaps too well. The routine set in motion worked beautifully. Soon we had the little guy in bed and seemingly an evening to ourselves to catch up.

And then...over the baby monitor I heard a lullaby. The unmistakable tingling of some wayward musicians mechanical tinkering. My friend has the 6th sense...smell, taste, sound, touch, sight and toddler hearing. Undetectable to the non-mother ear she heard...barfing!!??

As my first exposure to such an uh, phenomena I still have oh so many questions and a few observations.

Why does barfing always start at 12am?

How can they eat what amounts to ½ a cheese stick all day then produce enough barf to soak through 2 tee shirts?

Why can a child stick Cheerios in his nose crackers down his pants but stick an ergonomically designed thermometer under an armpit and you have screaming?

What is a parent to do when a child wants to be picked up and put down at the same time?

Why is it a child is either hungry, wet, in pain, lonely, or tired. The parent is guaranteed to be at least 3 or 4 of these at all times?

So my trip to Vermont? I mostly tried to stay out from underfoot and sat looking concerned at my friend...

I suppose what I have to offer this morning is what I hope is a note of encouragement to anyone who is a parent. Did you know that the Buddha had a son, Rahula?

When the Buddha came back after the six or seven years of seeking his Enlightenment his wife was not pleased. She sent her son to ask the Buddha for his inheritance!!! The Buddha, the son of a King, upon hearing this request turned to his attendant and said,

"He desires his father's inheritance, but it is wrought with troubles. I shall give him the benefit of my spiritual Enlightenment and make him an owner of a transcendental inheritance."

Annnd immediately he had Rahula, his 7 yr. old son ordained as a novice monk.

Woah mama!

I can only kinda, sorta imagine what the reaction of his wife was...no palaces and riches for you, just a little robe and a hut for Rahula...without full parental consent!

So, the Buddha himself was NOT a perfect parent. In fact parenting exposed him as a human being who acted in less than fully awake or wise ways.

If nothing else perhaps you can congratulate yourself today say I have parenting down at least as well as the Buddha.

Happy Monday,

Amanda