Through the doggie door of course!

"I need to tell you something" are words that you never ever want to hear from the parents of your kids friends. These exact words were said to me a few weeks ago at our neighborhood pool and every time I think of this story I have to chuckle.


Let me first preface today's post with a little bit about Gibson. He is my youngest son and is currently at the late end of being five. When he was born he came out kicking and screaming and hasn't stopped since. He has always been my more emotional, spunky, energetic one. Gibson is a great story teller...he gets that from me, and he is never wrong...he gets that from his dad! He is always asking questions and never likes the first answer you give him. He is a sweet boy that isn't afraid of anyone and can be friends with everyone.

Gibson loves playing with our neighbor boys Ben and Beau. To this day, I still don't know which one is which but I always assume that Ben is the older one since he is usually referred to first when they are both mentioned together. They are good boys that like to hang out with Gibson. He has become such good friends with them lately that I made a rule this summer that he could always go play at Ben and Beau's house. If he wanted to go anywhere else he would have to ask me first. This rule has been working well so far, or so I thought.

One day we were at the pool and Ben and Beau came with their mom Jonie. Jonie is a nice woman that kind of keeps to herself. We are slowly getting to know one another. This particular day as soon as she spots me at the pool she immediately turns the other way and heads for the main entrance. She comes right back with a chuckle and is very hesitant to let me know that she needs to talk to me about Gibson. I can tell she is uncomfortable but knows she has to share with me what is going on. I reassure her that there is nothing she could tell me that would shock me, while secretly thinking...oh no my son is taking his clothes off and hiding in the closet of his friends house when he goes over for play dates. You may laugh, but that was the first thing that popped into my head when Jonie approached me about Gibson.

The story goes like this. Jonie, her husband and two sons came home one day and pulled the car into the garage. They got out of the car and opened the door leading from the garage to the kitchen. When they walked into the kitchen, to their surprise was my son Gibson, exclaiming, "hey, where have you guys been" while standing in the pantry with snacks in hand. They were shocked and didn't know how to react. As I would have, they eventually started laughing. They asked Gibson what he was doing and he simply said "getting a snack and playing some Wii." They asked him how he had gotten in their house and he said "through the doggie door of course!" Sure enough they had gone upstairs to their game room and saw that the Will was on and that there were snack wrappers on the floor.

My first reaction was that I was actually proud of Gibson for being so inventive. I mean, how many five year olds do you know that would think to climb the fence and enter their house through the doggie door if his friends weren't home? Then it hit me...my kid can't be doing this. I had to have a serious talk with him. Our rule meant he could only go to their house when they were home. But clearly he didn't understand that! In his defence, I never told him that either.

So we sat down and had our little talk. I started off with a positive, as all good psychologists would probably recommend. I said, "Gibson, I'm very proud of you for being so inventive and figuring out that you could get into Mrs. Jonie's house through the doggie door." He smiled and thought he was so cool! But then I put my foot down and laid down the law. When I told him he couldn't do this and asked him why he did it, he said, in the naivety of a five year old, "but mom, sometimes I know they are home and they don't answer the door. I know they want to play with me. They need to know its me at the door. If they knew it was me, I know they would come out and play." Seriously, this broke my heart!

That's my Gibby, he thinks everyone loves him and always wants to be around him. I secretly hope he thinks this way for the rest of his life. I don't ever want my kids to be hurt by anyone, especially their friends. For this reason, I hope he stays young and naive for a long long time!