This summer our family found ourselves with a free weekend… Yeah, a weekend with no sports, no summer birthday parties, no family gatherings, no Holiday BBQ’s. Weird, huh?

So, what does a family do with a whole day free?

We check something off our fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants bucket list <you know the list you make up as you go>. We can’t be the only family to have one of these. It’s also your go to rainy day gotta get out of the house list.

!!!!!ROCK CLIMBING!!!!!, yell all three Green boys and the hubby.

Oh man, as a mom afraid of heights this is not a good rainy day bucket list activity.

So, what does a mom afraid of heights do? She sucks it up and joins in the excitement of the Green boys. In order to bolster up my scaredy cat nerves, I decided to wear my new lululemon athletica shorts and tank top. That’ll totally make me feel brave. Yeah <with enthusiasm>!

We headed over to the local rock climbing gym, Virginia Beach Rock Gym. We spent 30 minutes learning to auto belay. This rock climbing technique is a mechanical device that rock climbers use to control the climbers fall or descent from the climb. Our instructor picked me to go first and “demonstrate” to the kids how to belay. Yeah, I fell on my buttocks. Pretty sure the oldest Green boy took video and posted it to Instagram.  After this short lesson, it was on to rock climbing. I have to admit it was fun. I still got scared to climb up to the top of the courses. But each time I ascended, I did climb a little higher. It is also amazing to see how little fear kids have in life. They see the fun in the adventure, not the failure. We can learn something from kids. Have fun, not fear!

Facing fears is tough. It’s uncomfortable. And, it can be slightly embarrassing in front of your boys. It is also a great lesson for your children. Our kids need to witness us facing fears and how we react or overcome those fears.

If you never face your own fears, how do you support your children and facing their fears? Bucket lists are good for facing fears. Encourage your kids to write down things they would love to do in their lives. And then do them with your kids! 

But, I am here to tell you if any one of those boys writes down swimming with sharks… They are tough out of luck! I don’t do sharks and that is okay, too.