Won't you be my neighbor?

Fred Rogers coined the phrase, "won't you be my neighbor?" many years ago. What I love is that the shows we've chosen to turn on for our children during our morning wake-up-slow session has been none other than Mr. Rogers followed by Sesame Street. There are no commercials on KCTS which in turn assists Kyle and I in our attempt to free our children from the inability to pull themselves away from what our culture has labeled as being hip and necessary. We've desired for them to play outside... get out of their comfort zone (don't even talk to me about the recent articles I've seen regarding "how to transition your child to a different preschool")... meet people who, in fact, are different than them... do things that give them energy and provoke creative and imaginative thought... no, I'm not referring to the nouveau way of raising a child but instead the, what I think is supposed to be, normal way of raising a child.

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It was a moment I'll never forget.

The doorbell rang last week and I opened it to find two boys - the ages of 5 and, I assume, 10. The little boy, Ryan, asked if Katie could play. A smile danced across my face and I almost skipped into the kitchen knowing that Katie would soon discover that wonderful childhood feeling of "wanting to be played with", being beckoned to the front door to go discover something in the neighborhood that hadn't been discovered yet, to go ride bikes until Mom called you in for dinner, to go be kids before you had to return to structure and discipline. This was her first time.

She didn't know what to do at first. She scrambled out of the kitchen to find she arrived at the front stoop shoeless and without a helmet... this isn't going to do, she thought... but what if they leave before I return with my shoes on, she thought... where is my helmet and should I get my bike out first, she asks herself... "WAIT GUYS DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME!" She yells from the front stoop as she flips around and scrambles down the hall to the closet. Her eyes darting every which way without hope of ever accomplishing the task at hand... my heart lept. This was my moment as a Mom to shepherd my child as I've never done before. To teach her that this is only the beginning of great adventures with neighborhood friends.

I got down and calmly took hold of her hands. "Katie, would you like me to get your helmet and bike for you while you put your shoes on?" It was as though I had just roped the moon. Once she was over the elation (for a mere half second, of course) she ran into the closet still yelling every few seconds for the boys to wait for her. She would get one shoe in her hand, run all the way to the front door and cup her hands around her mouth, run back to the closet, find her other shoe, run to the front door and cup her hands around her mouth... on and on it went. It was wonderful to watch.

She rushed down the driveway, helmet on and carefully, but hurriedly, walking her bike. She was off. She spent a couple of hours biking up and down the sidewalk between our house and the boys house about 100 yards away. I casually kept an eye on her and found myself pulling my heart back into my chest a few times... this was harder than I thought.

Yet exactly what I want.