Over the weekend, we had ourselves a few fantastically rainy days.  On our way out the door, my four year old daughter decided that she didn’t want to go outside to the car.  She just didn’t want to get wet.  After explaining to her that a little water surely wouldn’t hurt her any, we went on our merry way.  Little did I know that all that was just a set up. 

Later that afternoon I see her looking quite downtrodden.  She explained that she just really wanted to go outside to play.  My obvious response, “But, it’s raining!”  She had me at that, after all, a little water wouldn’t hurt anything or anyone.  As any goofy mom would, I saw my errors, and agreed to go outside to play in the rain.  Sure we all got slightly drenched, and my hair was a complete frizzy mess after about two minutes. 

However, all of that was absolutely worth the giggling and pure elation that each child had while jumping into the puddles.  Or my son’s favorite, sliding down the slide then landing in a puddle.  We even went so far as to make a few mud pies.  All in all, it was a great way to make some memories.  It is for sure not something that I will encourage every time it rains, but maybe a once a month excursion for me and the kids.   

If you decide to give walking on the wet side a chance, be sure to leave lots of extra towels and maybe even some fresh clean clothes by your door.  Looking back, an empty laundry basket would have been a good idea to place all of the sodden clothes into.  Beside all of that, get out and jump in some puddles!

-Stephanie Wright