Now I Understand!

As a child,

I had poor impulse control.

Put another way,

I had trouble looking ahead from what I wanted to do

to what the potential consequences might be.

A few examples:

As a child:

- I picked the green tomatoes off all a neighbors tomato plants. I thought I was being helpful in gathering them.

- I, in conjunction with a peer, shook and opened every can of soda in my friend's parents garage. I wanted to see the fizz explode into the air.

- I, in conjunction with another peer, opened and used the paint cans in a neighbor's garage.. ON their garage.

-I was constantly, even well into my teen years, mixing "potions" with various lotions, perfumes etc. Often these would be spilled, staining the carpet.

And that is literally the tip of the iceberg.

My poor parents would wring their hands and gnash their teeth.

"What were you THINKING?!" would be the refrain

and it was nearly impossible to explain that I just ... wasn't.

I literally never thought at those moments about why I shouldn't do something

or that I might get in trouble for what I was doing.

Of course, once I was in trouble I got it.. but not before or at the time.

My first two kids don't have this poor impulse control.

But my third?

OH MY GOSH.

He has it in SPADES.

I try hard to have extra understanding and patience with him

over these incidents because I recognize that look of surprise when he gets in trouble

or when something happens (spills, explodes etc etc) that he had never considered.

But Good Lord Almighty, today was a real test.

He's old enough that I won't put it on this blog for the world to see

but I will have to write it down somewhere because I DEFINITELY want to remember this..

just so I can remind him when he has a kid of his own someday

who is Just. Like. Us.