Jump In

Today I took the kids I'm a nanny for to the pool. As I splashed around in the pool with them, I noticed something. I was the only woman in the pool! Sure, there were moms all around the baby pool, but they were just sitting on the side with their feet in, sporting their designer sunglasses and perfectly pedicured toes. None of them seemed to want to get wet. None of them had wet hair. As a matter of fact, if an enthusiastic kid swam by and splashed them, they shrieked like little girls.

Right now, some of you, (or most of you, judging by today), are saying, "So?" To you, I say "WHY?" You've seen kids swimming and splashing around in the water. It looks like fun, doesn't it? Well, that's because... IT IS.

Jump in! Do a cannonball off the diving board. You just might laugh at yourself. You just might feel young again. Your kids just might think you're cool. Or that you've lost your mind, but who cares?

Listen, I've worked with kids for a long time. They are a great excuse to act like a great big kid yourself. Go ahead and make an ass out of yourself. The people who are looking at you are just jealous. They wish they had the guts to do the exact same thing.

Go down that water slide! (Not the one that gives you a giant wedgie, though. Trust me, no one wants to see that.). Sit your big butt down in the sand and make a sandcastle. Ride the waves. Chase a butterfly. Jump in a mud puddle. Go on the swings. Run barefoot through the grass. You'll give your kids a summer to remember, and I'm betting you'll remember it too.



* "If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older". (Abraham Sutzkener)

* "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm". (Henry David Thoreau)

* "If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old". (James A. Garfield)

* "We grow gray in our spirit long before we grow gray in our hair". (Charles Lamb)

* "Little by little the time goes by, short if you sing it, long if you sigh. (Unknown)