Legacy

​We had just gotten home from one of the million different activities my youngest daughter is involved in. We pulled into the driveway, exhausted but glad to be home, and My baby got out and opened the car door to let our dog, TaterTot, out. But TaterTot wouldn’t budge. She just sat there on the seat, looking at her, completely still. She didn’t move an inch until I finally opened my car door, stepped out, and opened the door on my side of the vehicle. My daughter watched her, cracked up laughing, and said, "Omg Mom, I remember you saying 'Don’t open that door until I open mines' all the time when we were little. Now look at the dog, omg!" Y'all, I had completely forgotten about that rule! Years and years ago, when my girls were too small to understand how dangerous surroundings could be, I had a strict boundary: nobody unlocks or opens a car door until get out. I said it so much, so consistently, that it became a permanent law in our household. It turns out, TaterTot understands too! It was a hilarious moment, but as I stood there in the driveway, it turned into a cherished mother moment that I will hold close to my heart forever. It made me realize that the things we do consistently the boundaries we set, the safety nets we build, the words we repeat over and over again they stick. When you are deep in the trenches of caregiving, parenting, or just managing a household, it feels like nobody is listening to you. You feel like a broken record, constantly repeating yourself to a room full of people who are looking at their phones or distracted by the world. Even when you think they aren't paying attention, they are absorbing your patterns. They are learning how to protect themselves, how to navigate their surroundings, and how to create structure because they watched you do it first. The habits you are building today are the security blankets they will carry into tomorrow. Keep setting the standard, moms. It matters.