Confessions of a slacker mom

It's rare to have an epiphany, captured on camera. Here's what it looked like, for me:

It's the moment when I realized that I'm too lazy to be a legitimate tiger mom. I'd much rather sit back and watch Adil build sand castles and splash in the backyard paddle pool, than ferry him from piano class, to soccer practice, to Kumon lesson. If this little man chooses to be an over-achiever, he'll have to do so, on his own steam.

By all accounts, Adil, himself, will most likely thrive on this unstructured, unscheduled, free-play. We grew up entertaining ourselves on the street, in front of our house - hiding and seeking, running and catching, hopping and skipping. We used sticks and stones and piles of sand, from the neighborhood construction site, to draw and build and lounge on.

That's when you notice the ladybug sunning itself on your sleeve, or that your toes are deliciously moist, from the freshly-mowed grass, or that the setting sun has lit the sky an impossibly brilliant shade of pink.

Then you run back home, for a cold glass of lemonade, snuggle up on against your Amma, and truly feel, in the very depths of your being, that you belong and that all is well with the world.