The Dragon Mom

As parents, we make so many decisions every day. Hundreds, I'm sure! It starts the moment the alarm goes off - Can I press snooze? (Yes. Always yes.) Can I press snooze again? (Well, that's debatable. How much dry shampoo do you have to use today?) Should I get up and work out? (pfffft... who am I kidding?) Should I wake the kids up already? (but they had a late night - let them sleep a little more!) What am I making for breakfast for the kids? (peanut butter sandwiches for the umpteenth time in a row) What clothes should the kids wear? (times 3 - because you have to choose clothes for all three. Even though you have a hard time choosing clothes for yourself. Also, how many times can you allow the same clothes to be worn in a row? Can I let him wear the same pants two or three times if I change his shirt? Asking for a friend, of course.) Now making school lunches - more decisions. Soup or sandwich? (Oops, out of sandwich meat again. Can I send a peanut butter sandwich even though he had one for breakfast? The answer is yes.) Yogurt or apple sauce? (Both!)




Yes, as parents, we make endless unimportant decisions constantly.




But then there are the big, hard decisions - the decisions that can potentially impact your child's life forever. Sometimes, you antagonize over these decisions and write pro/con lists, ask advice, pray endlessly, research, and then scrap it and flip a coin (well... maybe not). You make what you pray will be the right decision and then you go for it.




And then sometimes you realize HOW WRONG YOU WERE.


Let me start telling you a tale about a bad parenting decision that I've made recently. (I've made many - just only sharing one... for now!)




So, once upon a time, many years ago, (well, two years specifically) Chelsea got to hold a bearded dragon lizard. She fell in love. She spent a solid two years doing research and learning and saving her money. She repeatedly asked if she could buy one and I, being the wise, sarcastic parent that I am said, "Sure. Maybe when you are 12 or 13." thinking, of course, that she would be long over her desire to be a lizard owner.




You see, this whole little plan of mine, failed to take one important thing into account. This little girl has a father - a father who tends to get pretty excited about new things and adventures. Somehow, these two convinced themselves that I said that she could get the dragon when she was 10. TEN... So they gang up. There's many promises made by both Chris and Chelsea, promising that I won't have to do anything for this lizard. (Yeah right!) They will take care of it all. (Snort.) There's some kijiji searching and in November (Yup - she was still 9. I still stand by the fact that I insisted she be 12 or 13!!) last year, Chelsea's dream came true.

Introducing Nacho. Well, technically, the previous owners thought she was a boy and named it Zeus, but after some quick googling, we discovered that she was indeed a girl. So, Nacho it is.

So I'm over here, still convinced that owning Nacho isn't a great idea. (Did you know she has to eat live worms? Like not normal garden worms, but superworms that have mouths and teeth and legs and feet that you have to get shipped to you? And that once they get shipped to you, you have to count them to see how many died in transit?) Well, dear readers, we all know how this is going to play out, right? Me, reminding Chelsea constantly to feed this thing, clean the cage, bathe her, make her salad, water her, etc. etc. and me getting stressed over this thing. Blah.

Then Nacho went into a long hibernation for 4 months - a glorious 4 months of not having to think about this lizard. She just slept and slept and slept and it was good.

(Wow this story is taking forever. Stay tuned for part 2. You might think GETTING the lizard was the poor parenting decision, but I'm barely scratching the surface here.)