Where Mom is, There the Fun is Also!

I just entered this for a contest. See what you think!

The smell of fabric softener permeated my daughters’ bedroom as I flung the sheets onto the mattress of the bottom bunk-bed and buried my face in them. I love the smell of freshly laundered sheets. So warm and inviting, I wanted nothing more than to wrap them around myself and cuddle up with a good book. But I still had bills to pay and weeds to pull on this fine spring morning. So, ignoring my impulses, I quickly spread the sheets over the mattress and finished it off with the quilt.
As I moved to the top bunk, my little sweethearts came barreling into the room. Trying to finish quickly in an effort to get the bills paid before the mailman arrived, I vaguely registered that the Layla and Seryn had climbed onto the freshly made bed and were playing around – undoubtedly rumpling the neatly tucked-in sheets.
After a brief moment, Layla, my three-year-old, said, “Mom, can you please leave so we can jump on the bed?”
Of course, I wanted to laugh! Why on earth would a child ask her mother to leave the room and then admit the crime she was about to commit? Knowing if I laughed that the teaching moment would be for naught, I swallowed my amusement. Sitting down on the bed of the bottom bunk by her side – there was enough room for me to sit up straight. There would probably be ample room for her to little body to jump, if she hunched over. Still, I could not allow it.
“Honey, you can’t be jumping on the bed. You might fall and get hurt and that would make Mommy very sad.”
“Could I break a leg?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be careful,” she said with a confident look in her eye.
“Layla, we don’t jump on the bed.”
“But it's just pretend. See? Watch!” She bent her little legs for maximum power and leaped across the bed as her little sister giggled and started to bounce with her. “That's not a real jump, Mom.”
A giggle burst from deep within me as I began to laugh. Of course it was a jump! But in her mind, since it wasn’t high, the jump hardly constituted as breaking the rules. Rather than scold further, I gathered my giggling girls in my arms with a big hug and we laughed together, enjoying the togetherness of mother and daughters. For a brief moment, my heart swelled and I remembered – amidst the demands of my day – the reason I am so grateful to be a mother. Nothing matches the tender, precious moments of enjoying my children!