Free Hands

"You've sure got your hands full" is a comment I hear so frequently and it kind of rubs me the wrong way sometimes when the tone is a bit judgmental.

Yesterday we went for a walk as a family of 4, and my daughter was busy collecting treasures (rock, leaves, and flowers). She loves to carry them all home in her little fists. Some older women passed by and said what else but "you've sure got your hands full". My husband responded back that she would carry home the whole beach if she could fit it in her hands, referring to my daughter and her paws full of collected treasures. We were talking about it during the rest of the walk and he didn't even realize they were referring to us and not our toddler.

I realize it's just an expression but it does start to get a bit tired after a while, especially when I've literally got two free hands. So, I've started playing a little game with it. There is a  group in town that collects baby carriers and wraps to loan to moms who don't have the financial means to purchase them. I said a while back that if I had a dollar for every time someone told me my "hands were full" when they were actually not that I'd have enough to supply every mom in our community with a baby carrier to keep her hands free. So now when I hear that comment I silently donate a dollar to the fund on behalf of the stranger making the comment. If if's someone I know, I teasingly give them one warning but if they say it again they must cough up a dollar. Since Kai was born 2.5 weeks ago, I've raised $ 22 -not too bad.

I prefer to think of it as one friend suggested -my heart is very full but my hands are free a lot of the time and I wouldn't want it any other way.