Let me start by saying that I am hover mom! My number one priority is keeping my boys safe and out of harms way.  BUT, having been raised by a hover mom myself, I realize how this limits personal growth and can foster self-doubt (for the record, I do not blame my mom for being over protective. She did the best she knew how). So this is why, when it comes to being adventurous with my kids, I feel the fear and do it anyway.  The cool thing is I'm learning that every time I do this, I learn a valuable lesson about life.

My monkeys and I on the banana boat....

During a recent vacation, I decided we should go on the banana boat. You know, the inflated banana that gets dragged around by a boat that looks like its engine is about to fall apart and they drag you wayyy into the deepest part of the vast ocean?  Yes, once I got my kids all excited about this I began to have "what if" doubts. What if we can’t get back on the banana and we get stranded, what if there's a shark, what if my life jacket falls of, what if we can't swim! Wait, we know how to swim. Well, you get the idea. So once again, in spite of my fear, we got on but not before I asked the "captain" to "please not tip us over". Go ahead laugh.

and off