2 nites ago i picked up Nettie from my MIL and she had a pet frog my FIL helped her catch. and while i wasn’t jumping for joy about this i figured she could keep the frog til she went to bed and then she’d have to let it go. she of course argued with me and i dropped it cuz it wasn’t worth it then. so all evening long she played with that frog in the back yard. she would let it go and then recatch it and put it back in its little container. she was all about this frog. and finally i looked at Hubs and said ” man, i remember when i used to bring my mom home grasshoppers and crickets and caterpillars. how grossed out must she have been? sick! how was i ever like that?” but i was totally like that! i would dig for worms or catch bugs and get styrofoam cups from the cafeteria and put them in there with a saran wrap lid on top. and i’d bring it home to show my mom and she’d act all surprised and excited and let me be the pet’s mama for the day. but every morning when i woke up it was gone. and i’d study the container and try to figure out how the heck the bug got loose! and i’d ponder it for like 10 mins and then go about my day cuz i was like 8 or 9 and my attention span wasn’t what it is today. but it puzzled me everytime. so last nite when i’m talking about this with Hubs and i tell him “well we’re gonna have to let that frog go when she goes to bed. i can’t stand to let it die like that”…it hit me. MY MOM LET ALL MY BUGS GO! i never thought about it really since i was a kid. i eventually quit doing that and grew up. and throughout my teen years i never thought about it. i remembered that i caught all that stuff but i never thought about how they were all gone in the morning. it wasn’t til i was in the same situation as my mom with my OWN daughter that it clicked…my mom let all my bugs go. so i had to call her right away. sure enough, thats what she did. she said she’d wait til i was in bed and let them go cuz she couldn’t stand to let them die in captivity. she said she never knew that i was so confused in the morning about what happened to them. but how could i have known with my mom acting all noncholant about it back then also pondering how the heck it got free!!!! i told her its crazy how life repeats itself. that now i’m the mom and here i am with my daughter who’s like me…bringing me home little animals that i’m gonna have to set free after she goes to bed and then acting all shocked with Nettie when she realizes it “got out”. when i was a teenager i swore i’d never be like my mom. she did things i hated and i didn’t understand. back then that is. now not only do i understand why, but i do the same things. right down to letting Nettie’s little pets go. i have become my mom. and i’m glad.