Cold Yet?

Okay, if it doesn't snow in Georgia today there are going to be an awful lot of disappointed folk. The weather gurus have been predicting snow for today for the last week. And it has been THE topic of conversation here. I tried to ignore the forecast, because it so often is a bust when it comes to snow for us. But the past couple days the buzz has grown and they've not changed our snowflakes to raindrops on the weather channel - yet. You folks up north, have no idea how it is here when we might get some snow. In the eleven years we've lived here, I can only remember two times when we actually had the ground covered. We moved from Chicagoland in mid-January and the week we moved here, snow forecasted for Marietta. My parents were here to see the new house and welcome us South. The kids went to school and my mom laughed at what they would think. "Your kids are going to think it's crazy down here because the other kids will be so excited about possible snow." (We'd left two feet of snow on the ground at our old house.)
Sure enough, the Shostak kids didn't understand. They were ready to open the pool. Matter of fact, both boys wore long, khaki shorts everyday to school the rest of the year.
And, I admit, after living with true cold for 10 years, I never could get real worked up about whether the kids were dressed warm enough after we moved back south. (Lizzy is known through out several youth groups as the girl who went snow skiing in shorts.) I figure it's not life threatening and if they're cold today, they'll put on more clothes tomorrow. I mean, they're not stupid.
However, sometimes parents act like kids are stupid. A teacher of kindergarteners mentioned that the kids come to school so cared for, they don't know how to do anything for themselves. When we protect our kids from consequences - failing a test, telling a lie, not dressing warmly, staying up too late, then they don't learn. Problem is - those consequences hurt us as parents so we cushion their pain when they live in our houses. What I'm liking about having adult children is I don't have to see the consequences up close anymore. Plus, I remember the consequences I dealt with as a young adult and know those mistakes, and dealing with them on my own, taught me a lot.
Wow - that took a big detour from the snow thing, didn't it? So here's to all the mistakes we made that got us here. And Let it Snow!