Power Outage 2

We lost power again today. It was perfectly sunny, not a cloud in the sky and not even a light breeze. And all of a sudden, the lights went out. Power was only out for 3 hours, but the memory of going without power for several days was still fresh in my mind and so I felt much more stressed out than I should have.

Once again, my concern wasn't about the 100 kids or 20 staff I'm responsible for. I wasn't worried about feeding them. I wasn't worried about making sure we had buckets of water to flush toilets. I wasn't worried about drinking water. I wasn't worried about hand sanitizer.

I was worried about how I was going to give my kid a bath. I was worried about keeping my house cool enough (without air conditioning or a fan) so that it wasn't hot when I put him to bed. I was worried about how to warm up frozen organic veggies that I feed him for dinner. I was worried about keeping frozen breast milk frozen and fresh breast milk cold.

I know that I have to let go of my uptight tendencies when it comes to this child. He doesn't need to take a bath every night. It has been uncomfortably hot, but not dangerous at any point. He mostly drinks breastmilk, so his dinner veggies aren't even necessary. And my refrigerator and freezer can both stay cool for many hours before I need to worry about milk.

Camp is a wonderful place to have a baby. He is surrounded by people who smile and wave and make silly faces at him. The kids and the staff love him. They enjoy watching him learn things and grow up in front of them, and he is learning so much by being around everyone. He is social and friendly and very easy going. Some of that is his personality, but some of it is growing up in a community. He is outside all day, every day. He gets to swim almost every day. He gets to breath fresh air and be in nature. His life is filled with music, laughter, love and sunshine.

I'm trying to remind myself that if he misses a bath a day here or there, or gets some bug bites or is hot on a hot day, he's still going to be happy, healthy and his life is still wonderful. I'm fighting the new-mom urge to get a giant plastic bubble and lock him away from dirt and germs. I know (in my brain) that in order to grow into a well-adjusted human, he is going to have to fall down, be uncomfortable, feel sadness or disappointment. In the camp brochure this year, I wrote, "we must prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child. It is not my job to make the road less bumpy, it is my job to teach him the life skills he will need to navigate future obstacles."

That's so true. So smart. I rock at youth development of OTHER people's kids. But my kid?! Nope. I don't want his precious feet to touch the ground, ever.

It's annoying to lose power- I've never enjoyed it. But I am trying to calm down so that it isn't a source of anxiety every time it happens.