I love asking my daughters random questions and then listening to what they say. I often learn so much from them. While I know that I’m driving my teen daughter a little nutty lately, I also know I get some things right. Since today I wanted to focus only on the positive, I decided to ask my nine-year old daughter what things I do that she loves. Before she answered, I vowed that whatever she said, I’d do my best to continue doing it. On another day, I’ll ask her what I do that I should try and stop. But that’s for another time. Here are her answers:
1. You let me cook with you
I love to experience cooking and to learn to cook new things. It’s really fun to spend time with my mom doing this together. I also love to eat what we cook with the whole family. I like to invite a lot of people over so they can eat with us. I love when we all eat together and get to talk.
2. I love when you drive carpool
When my mom drives, I don’t have to walk as far because she drops us off right in front of the school. When my mom picks us up sometimes we get to go out and get ice cream. Sometimes my mom takes all the kids in the carpool to get cookies. The kids think my mom is awesome when she does that.
3. My mom takes me to my favorite restaurant
I love Tepenyaki and it is really expensive. We go every year on my birthday. It is really fun to watch the guy cooking our food and trying to throw shrimp for us to catch in our mouths. I love when my mom lets me pick going to my favorite restaurant. Tepenyaki is really funny and my sister, my mom and I laugh a lot at dinner.
4. Shopping together is really fun
I love shopping with my mom. Going out with just us girls is really fun. Sometimes my mom lets me pick out craft projects or I get to try on cute clothes. I love feeling fashionable with my mom and she can be really funny when we are picking out things. She tells me a lot that a girl can never have too many shoes.
5. I love going on trips with my mom
I love going to fun places with my mom and sister. She takes us really fun places. I love going on cruises the best because there is kids club. We also get to go places that I see in pictures and TV. When we talk about places at school I have been to a lot of them and I like to tell the teacher about it. I went to where Abraham Lincoln was shot and then where he died. I loved snorkeling in Honduras. But my favorite place was Dubrovnik, Croatia where we walked along a long city wall and took a lot of funny pictures. Like I climbed on a cannon and make crazy faces. It was really beautiful and fun and we could see the ocean from the top of the walls. The stairs were really hard and steep to climb. My mom, sister and I have a lot of fun when we go places together. My mom likes to take us places together and she is really funny when we are away from our house.
6. Mommy-daughter dates are the best
I love girl time when it’s just my mom and me on our dates. I get to pick what we get to do and that is fun. I like talking to my mom when it is just the two of us because she asks me crazy questions.
7. When my mom watches my soccer games
She sometimes embarrasses me when she yells too loud but I get $5 every time I score a goal and $1 for every assist. If she doesn’t watch me play a game then I won’t get that much money.
…I was hoping that most everything she would mention would cost zero. That wasn’t the case but after hearing her answers, the amount of money really has nothing to do with anything. What she likes most is interacting together and having fun (how many times did she use that word?). Putting my phone away and doing things. I can spend very little or a lot, it really isn’t relevant.
I know that my 15-year old also loves our time together, though I’ll let her speak for herself another time. Even when we aren’t getting along, it’s important to her that we talk. One night, we had a particularly bad argument. I told her to get her shoes and jacket and we went out for a soda. It was an important moment. Keeping those lines of communication open really matter. I’ll keep that up.
Now it’s your turn– interview your kids. You might be surprised at their answers.
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