moms

I just looked at a book on Amazon called, "Fifty Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do," which was written by a guy who runs "tinkering schools" where kids get to play with power tools and make stuff - real stuff that works. I had watched a video clip of the guy and it intrigued me, so I looked up his book. Here's the funny thing, though: as I perused the table of contents to see what sort of dangerous things I ought to be letting my son do, I found to my surprise that I had done almost every single one of those things in my childhood - and more. I mean, lick a battery? Throw a spear? Stand on the roof? Please... BOooooRING! How about eat a monkey, construct a crossbow, and run pell-mell down the branches of a tree to jump, screaming, into snake-and-spider-infested patches of floating water plants?

I always thought my mom was a bit of a panic-storm, but I'm learning that most mothers don't let their four-year-olds have their own machetes, their five-year-olds wander around in the jungle without adult supervision, or their six-year-olds operate a band-saw.

Thanks, Mom. Happy Mother's Day.