Eclectic Muddlehood

I have heard this statement countless times in the last four and a half years in any number of locations, always in reference to the fact that I have taken my children somewhere with me that others dare not venture with their own or anyone else’s itty-bits.  Most recently, it was at a Major League Baseball game on a balmy Tuesday evening.  I have always been somewhat befuddled by this comment and the compliments on our children’s impeccable behavior that inevitably follow.  Are our children really that well behaved in comparison to the populace at large?  I seriously doubt it.  But we do take them out places few other children under five years old can be observed sometimes (much less three of them all together.)  So I think the positive observations about their behavior are mostly due to a lack of decent compariosn.  We often take them to museums, outdoor concerts, sporting events, camping trips, and so on.  It seems only natural to me to do so.  The foreign concept is that I should keep them shut up under lock and key until they are a “suitable age” to venture out into the world they are already very much a part of.  Young children are consummate observers.  They crave exposure to the great wide world and learn something new about life approximately every 2.3 seconds.  They absolutely teach me something new on a daily basis with their thoughtful takes on their experiences.  Possibly more importantly, I would go totally insane and probably turn into Total Psycho Mommy if I was trapped in my house for the first six plus years of their lives.  My children and I love venturing out.  As matter of fact, Athena wakes up EVERY morning and while munching breakfast, asks me excitedly, Where are we going to go today, Momma?  She is often totally put out when I occasionally tell her we are staying home to catch up on chores and other mundane household tasks.  Perhaps it’s the fact that we have a family full of extroverts.  Perhaps it’s the attachment style parenting.  Perhaps we’re just crazy.  But whatever it is, we feel that our children are real people in their own right and they are already citizens of the world.  Why not take them out to fully experience it?