Everyone has a super power, though sometimes it's not a very useful super power. Like, say, the ability to catch every illness your kid brings home. Or the ability to lose the same fingernail four times. Those are some super powers I could do without.
Anyway, I realized at 4:26 this morning that my super power has got to be the Mom Arm.
I suspect anyone who has ever been in the front of the car with a mom knows the most common manifestation of this super power. Before the brakes even slam on, the Mom Arm is all the way across the seat because clearly it can do a better job than the seatbelt when it comes to keeping you in your seat and not in the windshield.
I have that manifestation, definitely. Even though my kids don't yet ride in the front seat, I can't stop my arm from shooting across the car before I stop suddenly. My gym bag and the groceries and the library books are very grateful, I'm sure.
The Mom Arm is also useful when preventing Bea from touching every. single. thing on a table or a counter. I see the gleam in her eye, the slight movement forward... BAM! The Mom Arm is immediately there between her and whatever shiny objects she longs to paw.
This morning, I realized its best manifestion. When Bea appears at the side of my bed and starts to climb in, I automatically put out my arm to slow her down and protect my eyeballs and kidneys and other sensitive bits. Today, the Mom Arm touched damp pajamas and immediately stiffened and pushed the Pull-Up-free (whoops) child away from the bed before I was even fully awake.
Mom Arm, I love you. Thanks to your quick reflexes and emergency actions, I only had to wash one set of sheets this morning instead of two.
Ha! I was doing the Mom Arm at 16 when I first started driving. My friends thought I was NUTS.
Posted by: Cari | August 31, 2012 at 12:45 PM