Mommy Badge

Last night, we went to a Christmas parade with some friends. We had a blast, got the family out of the house and doing some holiday activities, and we laughed.

But y’all should know, I don’t have one of those ‘Here are pictures of our Christmas parade. Look how much fun we all had’ type of blogs.

Our friends are our age, but they have a 2 1/2 year-old daughter. We’ve been friends for a while now, and get together pretty much every weekend. I know that they have a younger kid and we have older kids, but sometimes it takes a certain situation to bring out the true colors of the age difference between them…

Like a Christmas parade, for example.

Mom of Younger Kid: My friend came prepared with gloves for everyone (even my family), chairs, blankets, snacks, drinks, her camera (with memory card) and cash in case there were food vendors set up. She had a diaper bag bursting at the seams with anything she could possibly need, otherwise known as A Prepared Mom of a Toddler.

Mom of Older Kids: Considering I haven’t carried a diaper bag in five years and have kids old enough to fend for themselves, sometimes I forget I’m the mom and have to take care of them outside the home. I found some gloves in the pockets of my coat (I haven’t worn since last year) that I gave to The Girl because her hands were cold and The Ginger got a pair of gloves from our friend. We at least had jackets and scarves (thank goodness). I owe my friend $20 (because I don’t carry cash with me), and the memory card for my camera was conveniently sitting beside the computer… at my house. I am what is known as The Lazy Relaxed Mom of Older Kids.

Younger Kid: Completely happy with a $3 light up mini-sword and $1 licorice rope that street vendors were selling as they walked by.
Older Kid: The Ginger wanted the big $5 light up sword, kettle corn, hot chocolate, cotton candy and anything else that a street vendor walked by with; and the $1 licorice rope ‘tasted funny’ according to both The Ginger and The Girl.

Younger Kid: Dancing to all of the music as the floats went by, waving frantically at the people in the parade, and just all around mesmerized by what she was seeing.
Older Kids: The Girl cracked 1 smile… ONLY ONE (we made note of it), and was embarrassed when her friend’s mom (who was walking with a Girl Scout troop in the parade) waved at her and called her by name.

Younger Kid: Covered ears and slightly hid when the loud, souped-up cars and motorcycles came roaring down the street, until she realized the sound wasn’t scary.
Older Kids: Yelled at the top of their lungs when the loud cars came, and clapped and screamed when they revved their engines and almost blew our eardrums out.

Younger Kid: Loved her time at the parade.
Older Kids: Would rather have been watching movies or playing video games in our warm home. How do I know? Because they told me when the parade was over.

Being the mom of older kids is so different than being the mom of younger kids. I remember the days when I had a diaper bag stockpiled with everything from diapers and wipes to antibacterial cream, Band-Aids, juice boxes and snacks – prepared for anything that could possibly come up.

Once the need for a diaper bag fell by the wayside, I kept my purse stocked with Lego mini-figures, in case The Ginger got bored wherever we were, and snacks. (I still find a Lego or two in my purse to this day.) When kids become school-aged, you pretty much abandon any of this preparedness-ish stuff, and leave the house with your wallet and shopping list… and that’s it.

While at one point I felt like a bad mom for not having what my family needed, I then remembered that I was that mom in the past, and had already earned my Badge of Preparedness so I could move on to the next mom stage.

I’ve also earned my Survived the Terrible Twos badge; my Throwing Diapers Out the Window badge; my Kids Can Make Their Own PB&J Sandwich badge, which meant I could nap more because they could fend for themselves; and my Go to Your Room badge, for those times that I didn’t feel like arguing with my kids and told them to go to their room…and they actually listened!

Now to just prepare myself to earn the Kids with Cell Phones Survival badge, the Daughter Dating badge, and the Kids and Driving badge. Wish me luck.

Tatted Mom is a tattoo artist turned stay at home mom who writes about the humor and chaos of motherhood at The Inklings of Life.