LK: Yes, if you choose to get married and you choose to have children.
ISH: But _______ and _________ don't have any children. I guess it's pcause they know how hard it is to be a parent.
I don't know if that's the reason these friends have chosen not to have children or not- I haven't really asked them. But today, as I sent Geo to school without all his PBS (Pillow Book and Snack) materials, I can fully agree with ISH's reasoning.
At "meet-the-teacher-night" Geo's teacher, Mrs. J (with whom, thus far, I am very impressed), asked us to help her teach the kids responsibility. And I'm all for that! Right with ya! Or so I thought. Apparently my support goes only as far as the theory of teaching responsibility.
Because even though this morning I asked Geo to walk around the house and make sure he is completely ready for school today. And even though I said, "Think about what day it is and then make sure you have everything," as he was walking out the door.
I'm dying to tell him to get his PBS material. I'm dying to remind him of what he needs. Because I can only imagine the disappointment he will have when he realizes he doesn't have the cool pillow he designed especially for PBS and when he realizes he doesn't get to have a snack when all the other kids do.
So, it seems that as much as I want to be the parent that instills important virtues like taking responsibility for what he needs for school, when put in practice, it's way harder than it looks.
Here's to hoping he handles it okay,
4 comments:
Awwwww that IS hard! Being prone to forgetfulness myself I probably would have had to chase after him to give it to him. But your way seems more likely to teach him something!
The funny part to me is that later that day I couldn't remember whether I left the garage door up or not when I left to run errands and called LK (who works close by) to see if he could run by and check. His response: I'm trying to decide if I should go and do this for you, or if I should let it teach you a lesson.
It was completely said with a smirky voice and he did go by and it was down- but yes, my own forgetfulness makes it hard for me to want to punish his-- but then it also makes me want to nip it now while I can (if I can)
So what was his response when he came home from school? : ( I know you are doing the right thing, but this was hard to read!
It was actually nothing! Nothing at all. When I picked him up and asked how his day was he just chatted about this and that and then went on to read the book he's been into -the Box Car Children! :)
But then at some point in the night he said "You know that today was PBS."
"Oh, I guess it was," I said.
"Yup, because it was Friday." he said
And then he went on to something else.
So I guess that means the lesson was learned. Sort of.
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