Here are two pieces of advice I find myself repeating over and over to my two girls. Can you guess which one gets which advice?

1) You'll never regret trying something, but you will always regret not even trying

2) Do what you have to first, then play (or get distracted.)

If you guessed Girl1 gets the first advice and Girl2 gets the second advice, you'd be right.

I'm not sure if it says more about Girl1 or me that I am constantly urging her to try stuff, everything from food to classes, to new drawings, to figuring out the tv remote.

It's not that she's incapable, its just that she wants to be very, very sure before she does stuff.

Maybe it means I am content with imperfection that I think it's better to have tried and failed than never experienced things at all?

I have this vision of and older, greyer, more bent Kirsten being told by Girl1, "try the jet-powered personal skateboard transport, mom, you'll like it."

For Girl2, that advice is based on my Protestant work-ethic/impatience. Girl2 has the amazing super power of being able to be distracted by ANYTHING.

Even if you put a chocolate cake with whip cream and sprinkles in the middle of an utterly blank and empty room and said "go ahead and eat the cake but only if you get there in the next minute" she would find SOMETHING to distract her on the way to the cake.

Like lint. Or her own eyelashes.

Or something.

Anyway, I'm sure Girl2 is going to have a good time reading me the riot act whenever she gets old enough to figure out how how many projects (especially cleaning ones) get left half-done around the house because her mother gets distracted by email, or a new youtube video I want to look at, or.....lint on the carpet.