Although we all enjoy our special events and activities -- it's just possible that it will be the little things that make the biggest difference. And you NEVER know what a kid is going to remember.
For example -- for two or three years, Warren would take his bath, put on his fleece pajamas, and then go up to Grandpa's room, sit on his lap and watch ferret videos on YouTube. I realized last weekend that Warren doesn't sit on Grandpa's lap any more...
How fleeting these childhood moments are...And you can't go back and do it over...that was then and this is now. But I'm sooo glad Warren will always have the memory of those ferret videos.
I think the kids will always remember our Friday nights. They take their bath, put on their pajamas, and we have an ice cream treat. Then we blow up the air mattress, watch movies from the library, or our favorite shows (after AGT, we moved on to This is Us and Manifest). I hope they will remember the puzzle table in the living room, swimming at the Y -- and Grandpa making pancakes for breakfast on the porch.
You never know what moment will make a difference in a child's life. How they look at the world, how they deal with trouble...
Last spring, one Friday night, Lilly was crying when she got off the bus. She didn't want to talk about it...but she was very upset. I kept trying to find out what happened...but she wouldn't tell me.
Hours later, Lilly got in the tub and she started to cry again....I waited...
She finally told me what happened....
She was coloring a picture during the bus ride home (it’s 45 min) and lost track of time. When the bus stopped at her house, the bus driver yelled at her because it took her two minutes to put her papers in her backpack.
OF COURSE I was very relieved to learn THAT was her problem.
The thing is, Lilly is a pretty serious child, and she tries so hard to do everything perfectly…it’s a lot of pressure. After she told me the whole miserable, sad story...
I told her EVERYBODY has problems. The trick is not to live a life without problems -- but to learn how to handle them. And, sometimes, it's helpful to put things into perspective. Then, we had a discussion about what that word meant...
I said I’d name a big problem, then she could name one….we’d make a list of problems and see where the bus driver-yelling-at-you ended up.
The first problem on my list would be finding out I had CANCER…Lilly looked horrified, then she said it would be a big problem if she fell off a horse and broke both her legs…
I said if Grandpa was a gambler, and he lost all our money at the casino….Lilly said if her parents were in a car wreck…
I said if there was no chocolate in the world…Lilly said IF THERE WAS NO BACON…and then we both started laughing...
When I asked where the bus-driver-yelling-at-her fell into the list of problems…Lilly smiled…and said it was somewhere below the no bacon problem….and I said now THAT was perspective!
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