Cookie Power

When I was growing up, my mom and dad were very liberal in allowing my sister and I to try new things.  We were allowed in the kitchen whenever we wanted to whip up a recipe.  We were allowed to build tree forts, sew our own doll clothes, and use power tools at a very early age to create projects of all shapes and sizes.  I even have a memory of using my dad's solder gun to try to make something cool when I was in late elementary school.

One of the benefits of growing up on a farm, is that farms always have a designated area that is every imaginative child's storehouse - the junk pile.  With the inventory on hand in a junk pile, the sky is the limit to what you can create!

This freedom we had as kids gave my sister and I "can do" attitudes.  We weren't afraid to try.  The end product wasn't always the important thing.  Sometimes it was just the fun of doing it.  And if we failed, we could just head to the junk pile, grab some more lumber and spare parts, and try again!

As a kid, I built a fort with four walls, a roof, a window, and a dutch door.  In junior high, I put up wallpaper in my room all by myself.  In high school, I put snow tires on my car all by myself.  In college, I designed an L-shaped bunk bed loft.  After creating the design, with tips from my dad, I took my measurements to the lumber yard, bought the lumber and with my sweet smile talked the guy at the lumber yard in to cutting all the pieces to my specifications, and then took it all back to my college apartment and built it.

As a recovering perfectionist, it has taken me many years to even get to the point of allowing my kids the freedoms I had as a child.  I was too afraid of the messes, the things that might get broken, the body parts that might get injured.

But I congratulate myself that I have progressed a bit.  When the boys were about eight and ten, I set up an Imagination Station in the garage with all sorts bits and pieces that they could invent cool stuff with - but in a contained area :) !  In a measured way I have given my kids access to shovels and saws and other tools, but I do have to continually fight the immense internal desire to say, "No way, Jose!  Are you kidding?  Think of the mess that you're going to make!"

But, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to report, I have now given my kids full rein in the kitchen!  My girls came to me over Labor Day weekend and asked if they could make sugar cookies.  My answer?  "Sure!"  And I let them do their thing without interfering a single time!  (Can I hear a "Good job, Liz"???)

You know what the end result is going to be if I keep giving them these kind of opportunities, right?  "Can - do" attitudes!