I have a 6-year-old son who brings me so much joy.  This weekend I had a light bulb moment of how much joy we can bring as mommies.

Generally speaking, every weekend my son is either playing with the three other 6-year-olds in the neighborhood and the brood is either at our house, their houses,  outside riding scooters and bikes or throwing balls around. However, this weekend, all the kids were gone and my son moped around bored.  Then he said, "Mommy, can you play with me?" This would be the time were we'd normally bring out Monopoly or Sorry, but it had just finished raining and I noticed a ton of snails were emerging from the woods looking for drier land. So I thought, let's do something I used to do when I was little, and asked him, "Wanna go snail hunting?" He excitedly replied, "Yes," and we proceeded to take our bucket outside searched through the grass and plants for as many snails as we could find. Afterward, we took pictures to gross out Grandma - of course. Then, we picked a spot to release them to their new home. We counted each one, assigned them to a "family" and then named them.  We had "hunted" 158 Mommy, Daddy, Teenager and Baby snails. We had a blast.

That night, when I put him to bed, I could see and feel how special he thought the day was.  And when I tucked him in, he said, "Mommy, I love you do much." It was an amazing day, one I know I'll never forget and one I don't think he will either.

So moms, when your kids ask you to play with them, take the opportunity to create beautiful memories they can hang on to long after we're gone.

Thanks Dr. Laura for being a great role model to us moms out here.

Sincerely,

Sandra