Kids are Kids
Some kids are quite advanced for their age, some are somewhat behind compared to their contemporaries. I have yet to meet “normal” kids though, technically speaking. “The only normal people,” it has been said after all, “are the ones you don’t know very well.” Children are unique in their own way (and I hope and pray teachers remember this).
Parents who are blessed with kids (no matter which category their children belong) should remember that kids will be kids and need all the guidance they can get. I top the list of parents I need to remind about this lesson.
A few days ago, my heart was jumping for joy about what my four-year-old son’s skills and abilities. We were on the supermarket’s cashier lane when we forgot Kyle’s favorite canned tuna. His dad said without mentioning which isle, “Kyle, can you please get a can of tuna in the shelf.” Kyle took his adventure and went back with the can of tuna and the specific variant we always buy for him. Lo and behold, this is another manifestation of my son’s abilities in geography!
Yesterday morning, however, Kyle accidentally broke our neighbor’s clay pot which contains our neighbor’s plant while playing ball. He rushed to me while on the verge of crying (as if to tell me, “yes mom, I know what guilt feels like”). If it were intentional, he would have certainly heard from me. But I was watching him all along to know that it wasn’t. So I asked the caretaker to clean up the mess and we headed to the nearest wet market to buy a replacement pot.
Thankfully, we were able to purchase a clay pot quickly and we asked the caretaker to re-install the plan using the replacement pot. I attached a note of apology to the pot and as soon as the neighbors were awake, it was his dad who personally apologized and Kyle followed suit. Thankfully too, the neighbors have forgiven him.
I’m hoping that as Kyle gets older, he’ll learn the message that goes beyond “if you break it, fix it.” What I hope this will instill in him is that “if you break it even if you don’t mean it, fix it and don’t forget to make amends with the person who owns it.”
More Topics: